Now a Monster
by Tamlin
Summary: Sequel to "Once a Man." Hojo and Vincent were once lovers, but because of Lucrecia and Gast, they were seperated. After thirty years, Lucrecia steps free from her Mako crystal and begins her quest to summon Jenova, Chaos, and Omega. Vincent/Hojo
1. The Awakening

Disclaimer for this and all subsequent chapters: Final Fantasy it the property of Square Enix/ Square Soft. I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any material related to it. This is for entertainment only and I make no profit from it.

AN: This is the sequel to "Once a Man." You will appreciate and understand the viewpoints, characterizations, and actions of this story more if you read that story first.

For those who want a recap of major events: Vincent and Hojo were lovers before Nibelheim. Gast and Lucrecia drugged them with mind controlling drugs and Jenova. Vincent was infected by the Chaos gene. Hojo went insane. Hojo tried to save Vincent from being taken over by Chaos, and only partially succeeded. He tried to save Sephiroth from being taken over by Jenova, and in the long run failed. He placed Vincent into a specially made coffin, hoping that he would one day return to normal and went back to Midgar to try to undo Lucrecia's experiments on Sephiroth. Thirty years later, Vincent finds Hojo's memiors (which is what the fan fiction was), which describes all the events that took place and hints that Hojo survived DOC, but hides it from Avalanche.

**You may all praise the amazing Strange and Intoxicating –rsa- for beta-ing this. (I think I'll be groveling in gratitude to her for a long, long time…) **

Now a Monster

Chapter 1: The Awakening

**-Vincent-**

I kept the diary to myself. It was mine and I wasn't going to share it.

I confess I was angry—very angry, when I read it the first time while standing in that room in Junon. How could anyone write such things? The very thought disgusted me that I would willingly touch that revolting creature. That I had sex with him. That I loved him! I could barely stand the thought that he once touched me, and now I was to believe that I willingly put my hands on his foul skin? That I kissed him and wanted more? That I once actually initiated intercourse with…with that monster?

_Lies!_ I told myself. _Who could cheer for Lucrecia's_ _pain but a sick, evil madman? Horrid! Unforgivable. _But I had to wonder, in the privacy of my rooms, why would he lie? The diary was hidden away, tucked in an abandoned room. It was never meant to be read. Yes, he wrote it as if he was talking to someone, but who?

Who would listen to Hojo?

No one.

So I put it away, not wanting anyone to see those lies. They were sick, perverted lies. They were disgusting, horrid, twisted and I was not going to let anyone see them. They were lies, but they were mine. I wanted to keep them to remind myself why I hated the man.

It was only when she stepped out of the crystal that I started having my doubts. I was there when she opened her eyes and smiled at me. I rejoiced when she stepped forward into my embrace, wrapping her soft arms around my neck and whispered her love. I adored her as she took my hand and led me out of the cave into the sunlight, spinning dreams of our future together. I screamed when she brought me to Costa del Sol. Where was my Lucrecia? My beautiful, beloved who sacrificed so much for my sake?

That...that thing was not her. It could not be. Something had to be wrong. There had to be some mistake.

That thing reached out and called out to the demons in my soul and laughed when they responded. She smiled as I lost control of Hellmasker and killed while the victims screamed and begged for their lives. She walked in my shadow as Galian tore into the dead and fed, gorging himself on decomposing flesh. She stood smiling as Death Gigas tossed the dead into piles then hunted for more to make them bigger. When I changed back into myself she cooed comfort, stroked my blood soaked hair from my face and told me not to be upset.

"Don't cry Vincent. It's all right," she murmured in my ear. "Just let go. It's all right. You're a monster. Hojo made you that way. Don't fight it, love. Let go and be what you are. I will always love you."

Where was Lucrecia? Where was my gentle, sweet love?

"You've always been a sinner, Vincent, so why are you weeping?" she'd sigh. "Now, get up. You have work to do."

And I'd get up.

When my tired body finally fell, drained, she'd shake her head and walk away, leaving me to crawl after her. "Where is my Chaos? It was careless of you, Vincent, to lose him. We'll have to find him and get him back."

I didn't want him back. I was free, as free as I could ever be. I didn't want Chaos back. Neither did the other demons in my soul; they had feared him. They had been his slaves, chained to his will and he hadn't been any kinder to them than he had to me. If anything he tormented them more, resenting their presence. They heard her and they feared what she said.

I cannot say they did what they did out of kindness or compassion for me. I was nothing to them but a way to satisfy their cravings for the mortal world, for blood and for death. They thought once Chaos was gone they would be free, but my will bound them. When she came back they gloried in her presence, in her ability to make me free them of the shackles of my mind so they could do as they pleased. But they didn't want Chaos back; it was better for them to seek refuge in the black aether they came from than to stay and ravage across the Planet as Chaos's slaves. So they tore themselves free and fled, leaving me with all their deeds smeared across my soul.

She was disgusted. "How could you, Vincent? How could you lose them?"

As if I had a choice. As if I wanted them to stay.

Where was my Lucrecia? My beautiful, sweet, brave angel?

That was when I remembered Hojo's diary. He had called her his angel. In the depths of his sickness, as he wasted away in Nibelheim, he had called her his angel.

Were the lies true?

Who had I loved? Lucrecia, who gave up so much for me then plunged me and the Planet into hell, or Hojo, twisted, broken Hojo, who went mad because he could not save me from her?

Who was I? Vincent Valentine, ex-Turk, a demon-infested science experiment who was loved by a beautiful woman named Lucrecia? Or was I Vincent Valentine, Hojo's lost lover who was wept for and missed?

I ran away, hiding in the caves outside of Junon; it was a fit place for a worthless beast.

I heard her calls for me to come back.

"Vincent, my love. Where are you?"

"Vincent, my darling, come back."

I burrowed deeper in the dirt of my lair, covering myself in dirt, decomposing leaves and dead things with the blood of the murdered caking my hands and clothes. I didn't want to come out. I wanted to stay there forever. And I wanted my book. I wanted Hojo's diary. In that diary there was another Vincent, one who hadn't been a monster, only a man who had a home, a sweet, foolish lover, good friends and dreams for an even better future.

In the end it was all I had and I'd lost it. I had left it behind in Kalm. All those lies, all those truths, all those dreams, lost.

**-Hojo-**

Sleep. It's a marvelous thing.

One of the tricks that Turks use to find you is to track down your trail, that flimsy path of railway tickets, receipts, grainy security videos and scattered witnesses. Vincent used to drag home stacks and stacks of minutia to sort through when trying to find someone. He even told me how to hide. The trick was, he told me, to leave no trail for anyone to track. The best way to do that was to just stay still. And what better way to stay still than to take a very, very long nap?

It took me a while to find a suitably unvisited location to settle myself in. I didn't want wandering do-gooders to invade my slumber. I learned that much from overhearing Vincent's adventures; it seemed Avalanche either had some strange radar for people trying to get a bit of rest or the world was truly a small world were no cave, crevice or basement was safe from the overly curious eyes of the pure of heart.

I finally settled on a nifty, little cave in the ruined part of the City of the Ancients. I outfitted it with a durable foam mattress, a few acrylic blankets and a foam pillow. To make sure I wouldn't get woken up by wandering clones, irritated and delusional ex-SOLDIER wannabes, or hyperactive ninjas, I covered the entrance to my boudoir with a small landslide. A small crevice wound its way outside provided plenty of air—and access by small insect denizens. A small addition of a filtration screen solved the bug problem without blocking the air. It was warm, very dark and blessedly Jenova free. In short, it was quite cozy. Too bad the Planet was a bit chatty and I was in its favorite gossip spot.

I quickly got used to its chatter. The batty, old thing had a pleasant voice when it wasn't wailing, shrieking or carrying on hysterically about one thing or another. I contentedly dozed, listening to it talk to itself about seasons changing, tides moving and the infinitesimal drift of the continents. I wasn't entirely sure how I knew what that one-sided conversation was about, but I figured it had to do with my choice of a bedroom. At some point in time it became aware that I was listening—I think an overly nosy Ancient girl just had to point that out to the senile piece of rock—and decided to enliven my slumber with dreams of what was happening outside of my cave.

It was amazingly dull. People, no matter where they are, are people. I tuned the whole mindless parade out, rolled over, and tried to get into a deeper sleep. I must have snoozed for a good year when the Planet decided it wanted my attention. I wasn't in the mood so I pulled my blanket over my head and ignored it. I'm good at ignoring things. It takes practice, but after years of the mindless stupidity at Shinra, I was a pro.

It wasn't until the Planet made me listen to Vincent crying that it got my undivided attention.

Vincent was in pain.

Stupid Planet.

Stupid Ancient girl.

I dug my way out and went to find him. Sure, he was probably going to shoot me again, but I couldn't ignore that terrified, agonized sound. There are just some things I cannot do. I could not turn my back on my son when he needed my help, even though I knew I would most likely die doing it. I could not ignore Vincent when he needed me, either. I had been shot before. It wasn't nice, but I got over it.

My how things changed in just a short time.

Bone Village was actually crowded. People were packed in the streets, huddling in tents, peering around shattered bone structures that even the most desperate of the natives had left alone, begging for gil and wandering around with a lost look in their eyes. I was dodging an enterprising waif that was clinging to passersby wailing for gil to buy food when I bumped into a familiar face. Bettina.

"Excuse me." She was juggling an armload of brown paper bags. "Coming through!"

"Here, let me." I scooped a few out of her arms.

"Than…" she blinked at me. "Uh…"

I smiled. "H.J." I gave her a small bow. "Hojo, junior."

She gave me a relieved smile. "I knew your…" She looked me over, "father."

I should point out here that I actually hadn't aged since Gast and Lucrecia first gave me my coffee with a large helping of Jenova cells. I had tried through the years to make myself look as if I was my correct age—you might want to see the face of a beautician who is told to put gray into your hair. It's quite entertaining—but under the dye, makeup and slouchy clothes I was still as I was decades before. I suppose it had actually come to my aid that I had always been… well, less than handsome. It gives the impression of age if you have a craggy, ugly face to begin with. Standing on the street with Bettina after a long rest and with no makeup, hair tints or other disguises, I looked like my own son.

"Did you? He once told me he lived up here." I looked around as if impressed. "He said he lived in a skull and got chased by lizards."

"Yep. That was him." She nodded and indicated with her chin for me to walk to her house. "I don't care what they say about him; he was a good man."

And you, Bettina, were a better woman than I deserved. I'm glad, in the end, that Davies married you.

"Thanks. I didn't know him well." I held more bags as she dug out her key and unlocked her door. "He was too busy with work."

"Yes, he did love his work." She took the bags from me. "You should go to the store and talk to my husband. Your father owned property up here."

My skull. How joyous. But still, it was better than huddling on the street. I wondered how it still looked after so many decades of neglect.

Thirty minutes later, as Davies, still vigorous and active, unlocked the door, I realized things in Bone Village were built to last. It was dirty and had some ominous scratching sounds coming from the cupboards, but it was still intact and livable. There was the now-dated kitchen that Vincent had once cooked our dinner in. Over behind the curtain was the large bed we had used to acquaint ourselves with each other's bodies. On the back wall, the bookshelf still held a few dusty, time-warped books that we'd left behind. The table that we'd sit chatting and eating at was still sitting in the center of the room with spiderwebs now spun between its legs.

I had a small nostalgic moment as I walked over to the wood burning stove and stroked its surface. Vincent had loved that stove. He'd sit next to it in the evenings reading with the light flickering over his skin and hair, casting him in gold and shadows. When he'd come to an interesting passage, he would look up and call out.

"Listen…"

And I would turn to him, watching him and marveling that someone so exquisite, so vibrantly alive was looking up at me with warm, golden-brown eyes and that later we would be tumbling in the bed in a tangle of limbs and sharp, pleasured cries.

"Your father left a lot here." Davies kicked a petrified rat out the door. "He told me to just sell it, but… well he never contacted us again, so I left most of it."

I had forgotten that. On our way out of Bone Village, Vincent had been nearly shoving me down the street in his eagerness to leave. I only had a chance to call out to Davies to sell things off before my darling Turk shoved me into a helicopter. Once back in Midgar, I'd been distracted by budgets, resettling into my life, and feeling miserable about being abandoned. I never got back to Davies about what happened to my things. When Vincent and I came through on our way to visit the City of the Ancients, I had only stopped to exchange quick pleasantries before being hauled through the forest and being pounced on by an overly amorous Turk.

"The only things I sold where the filing cabinets. One of the researchers was desperate for some, so… I got a good price and put the money in the bank." He looked around. "I guess it's yours now."

"Thanks!" I looked around, still remembering things as they once were. "Uh… I guess I could use a few things."

He looked over at the antique, kitchen stove that huddled to one side. "Come on over to the store and we'll get you set up."

I hadn't planned it, but it was perfect. I needed some place to hide. I needed to find out what was happening and I needed to find Vincent. The best place for that was in Davies' store, where the gossip of all Bone Village circulated. Once I found Vincent, I would need a quick place to retreat to and what better place than my trusty skull?

As we passed the homeless throngs in the street, I tugged at Davies' sleeve. "I'm sorry if this sounds a bit odd, but I've been studying in the City of the Ancients for a few months…"

He tossed a few gil to a beggar. "What's on your mind?"

"What's going on?" I waved a hand around me. "Why are they all here?"

"Hmph. You must have been there quite a while." He stepped into the store. "The Western Continent… well it's hard to say, but some kind of super monsters rampaged through. Destroyed Costa del Sol and I've heard stories about Gongaga getting hit, too. People have been fleeing up here."

"Monsters?" I didn't like that. Vincent was crying and monsters were ripping apart towns.

"Three of 'em. A purple dog thing, a tall thing with a chain saw and a mask, and a tall lighting elemental. Avalanche, WRO and Shinra are hunting them, but so far no luck. People are scared."

Vincent? Vincent was being hunted? And by his so-called friends. As they say, with friends like those…

I barely noticed as Davies started making a list. "Was there anything else?"

I was wondering about Chaos. Had Chaos come back to the Planet? How? Could Omega come back too? That wouldn't have been good. I had my moments, but planetary destruction was a bit too much for my nerves. Sephiroth was enough of a strain the first time, thank you, I wasn't up for a encore.

What I didn't expect was what Davies gave me. "Yeah, some of the people said the monsters were led by a woman."

"Oh." I didn't have to ask to know. Vincent's tears and cries should have told me that already if I hadn't been so stupid.

I was loaded down with firewood, food and bedding. Apparently, the homeless infesting the streets had done little to endear themselves to Bone Village's inhabitants, so they got little in the way of help. Thanks to my previous sojourn I was considered nearly a native—or the son of a native—and by the end of the day I had a warm, cozy, if somewhat dirty, place to live.

Vincent would have had a fit. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and reminiscing about Vincent and his fetishes. By the time I was finished, I guessed that Vincent would have given it a sigh (Translation: I'm still going to clean it behind your back, but it will do.) and would have tugged me over to the bed to mess up the sheets.

After that, I spent the next few days wandering around town, listening to the stories of the refugees. It was pretty clear what had happened; the demons had gotten loose. Knowing what I knew, that meant Lucrecia had her loving hands in things again.

I knew I couldn't trust that bitch to stay entombed.

The only question was: where was Chaos? Had she absorbed his essence while in the crystal? If so, why was she using Vincent to wreck villages? It made no sense. But then, little about her plans ever made sense to me. What I did know, however, was that I had to find Vincent. That meant I had to either slowly track him down—very difficult to do when you were the most hated person on the Planet—or get help.

Damn, I hate that Ancient wench.

I trudged back through that stupid forest, killed the stupid monster that always lurked stupidly by the stupid walkway down to the stupid city, plodded back through the stupid city itself, found the stupid pool of holy, and yelled for the stupid Ancient twit.

"Okay. Where is he?" I snarled pleasantly. I knew she could hear me. She poked her nose into everyone's life, got the Planet to harass me out of my nap, and she was probably floating around in the lifestream gloating.

"Hello, Professor Hojo." She appeared before me smiling pleasantly with her hands clasped in front of her, pretending to be cute.

I wished I was the bastard everyone said I was and had poked her with bigger needles. "Where is he?"

"It's nice to see you again. Sephiroth says hello." She smiled happily at me, as if sending me a greeting from my dead son was something I would treasure.

I didn't. It just hurt. I missed him.

"Vincent." I tried not to lunge at her and shake the information out of her. "Where."

"Junon," she sighed. "He's hiding in the caves outside the city."

I turned to leave.

"Don't hurt him, Hojo," she warned.

I hate her. She knows nothing. I destroyed myself for Vincent; why would I hurt him?

I was on a leaky tug boat to Junon the same day. I closed up my little skull, firmly locked the door against unwanted intruders and was gone to slosh around on the ocean and pray to any loitering deities that the rotting tub wouldn't sink. Still, it was cheap and the captain was a villager which meant that he'd just grunt irritably at any nosy inquiries into his passenger logs, couldn't care less about what I did, and knew how to sneak through the northern waterways without a wisp of suspicion touching him.

Junon hadn't changed. It was big. It was ostentatious. It was a sty. Considering that it had been largely built by a pig it didn't surprise me. I didn't stay too long. There were too many people who lived in Junon who would have liked to talk to me about my previous exploits as a research scientist. I kept my head down and covered, slipping through town like Vincent had taught me so long ago. I hiked out of town and spent a few happy hours getting soaked trying to wade across the river. I got to the caves by nightfall.

I remember there was an old man who used to sleep in those caves. Unlike Vincent and myself, he had no mako, Jenova, or other happy contaminants to send him off to the twilight lands of slumber. He was just lazy. I used to think of having him dragged in for study; he had to have some kind of sleep disorder. I heard that Avalanche nagged him out of his peaceful sleep and he was crankily working in a diner as a cook. I'm sure he was thrilled with the change.

It took me three days of crawling in and out of every nook and cranny of those hills before I found him. He really wasn't well hidden. He was more like a wounded animal that had crawled away than my clever Turk that could hide anywhere he wished without a trace, but instead he was curled in one of the smaller, dirtier caves. I was crawling through, mainly trying to see if a tiny crevice opened up into a larger cave, when I shuffled over something soft. It wiggled a little under me, then it stayed still. At the time, I thought it was some kind of earth monster. Visions of giant maggots danced through my head, and I screamed like a child faced with a spider. Maggots, though, don't whimper, nor do they have matted hair, tattered clothes, frail limbs, and sad, glowing, red eyes.

"Vincent?" I started digging.

He'd buried himself in filth.

"Vincent. Come on, Vincent." I tugged him up. He smelled awful, like an old slaughter house. "Vincent, move."

"Leave me," he said, his voice was barely audible. "Don't…"

"I am not leaving you." I suddenly had a thought. Vincent always equals guns, which generally means me acquiring bullet holes. "Where is your gun?"

He lay limp, passive. "I don't know."

Vincent with no gun.

The end of the world is nigh, my children. Repent. Again.

But seeing that he was unarmed, I wasted no more time. My Turk was not going to wallow in that filthy cave. I hauled him out, whimpering and protesting his unworthiness of being saved all the way. I don't think he realized it was me till we got outside and I put him down.

"Hojo." He covered his eyes, curling into himself. "Why are you here?"

"For you, obviously." I sat down to catch my breath, yanking him out of the cave had been strenuous. He'd piteously tried to cling to every rock and outcropping on the way out, begging to be left to rot. "Have I mentioned lately that you're high maintenance?"

He looked at me dully then looked away. "You're here to put me back in my cage, aren't you?"

"No..I…"

"A monster should be in a cage." He shivered, bowing his head and curled into a near fetal position on the ground.

"Come on, Vincent." I pulled him up and started dragging him back to Junon. "We're going home."

It took some doing. Hauling a blood and gore covered ex-Turk while being hunted by all the major world organizations through the biggest remaining city on the Planet was an experience I was not going to treasure. Luckily, the river washed a lot of the gore off. I managed to get him to part with most of his clothes when we got to the city. He wouldn't part with the cape—what was with him and that stupid, ragged piece of cloth? If I'd known he'd treasure his father's clothes so much I'd have picked up a few more—so I had to bundle the sodden thing up in an old, plastic, grocery bag, steal some clothes out of a charity bin to dress him in and stuff him into them while we huddled in a stinking back alley.

It worried me that he didn't even twitch over all that filth. I also got him to huddle down and keep quiet, pretending to be an old, bent-backed man being led through the street. In a strange way, Junon's size worked for our advantage. There were just too many people to spot and trail a single person when you had no clue that the person was wandering the streets.

I also didn't leave much of a trail. I interacted with no one. I bought no goods. I took no taxis. I stayed in no hotels. I went to no restaurants. I stayed away from security cameras when possible and ducked into crowds with my charge when I had to pass one by. I kept my head covered, but didn't draw attention to myself by acting like I was trying to hide. If he hadn't been such a wreck, Vincent would have been proud of me.

I managed to stuff him back on the leaky tub that brought me here, and we were gone. The captain didn't even blink at his added passenger. When we got back to Bone Village I paid him from my meager windfall and tugged Vincent down the street. It was harder to smuggle him through the village but the old man trick worked well, and it was dark when we arrived. More people had crowded the streets, laying along the sidewalks in miserable huddles and shivering in makeshift camps of old boxes. I hustled us through and shoved him in my skull the second I got the door unlocked.

"We're here." I hustled him through the house, discarding odious pieces of clothing as we went. "Let's clean you up."

He didn't argue. He hadn't argued, or even spoken since outside the cave. Given a chance he'd just curl into a ball on the ground and silently cry.

"Remember this place?" I pulled him into the tiny bathroom. "I used to spend a lot of time throwing up in here."

Vincent stood uncaring as I started the shower and was surprised when hot water actually appeared. He moved like a broken toy as I cleaned his hair and started scrubbing the ingrained dirt off of him. His eyes were dull and he clung to the grocery bag with his cape. When I pulled the thing out of his arms to clean him, and it, he started crying again. I finished quickly and handed it back.

"I really did drink a lot back then, didn't I?" I was chatting to keep myself from screaming.

She'd done it, again. She destroyed Vincent.

I hate her.

It's my new mantra; may it bring me joy and peace. Oooohhmmm…

When I was done, I pulled him back into the main room and toweled him off as he stood wavering on his feet staring at nothing. "Remember when we got the stove? You were tired of sweeping the ashes out of the fireplace, and that one was much easier for you to clean."

I pried the cape out of his hands again and pulled a tee-shirt over his head. It hung off him limply as he stood blinking emptily. He was so thin I was afraid it would hurt him if his cape so much as swished against one too-frail leg. I smoothed the tee-shirt down. He just stood with tears silently spilling down his face, falling warm against my hands and arms as I dressed him.

Too thin. Too broken.

"And remember the pickle jar?" I wiggled him into a pair of flannel boxers that hung off his skeletal hip bones then sat him down on the edge of the bed. I gave a fake strained laugh. "Hardly a brilliant start for a worldwide catastrophe."

He just looked at the floor. I combed his wet hair back from his face, tied it neatly back out of his way, and nudged him into laying down. "It's alright Vincent. You're almost home now. We'll be there tomorrow."

I settled in bed behind him and cradled him in my arms, stroking his shaking body as I pulled the blankets around us. "Go to sleep, love. Go to sleep. We'll be there soon."

I woke the next morning to him clinging to me with desperate fingers and tightly shut eyes, wrapped in the tattered folds of his now dry cape. When I pulled him away so I could get us some food, he hid under the blankets till I returned and crawled back to me to latch on to my shirt, burying his face against my side. I managed to spoon some soup into him, then spent the rest of the day cradling him against me and whispering assurances as he whimpered and stared horrified into his own memories.

When dusk finally fell we went back to the City of the Ancients. He perked up a little as I pulled him through its streets, looking bewilderedly at the shell houses. I led him through along the walkways, letting him reach out to touch a building here or stroke an old fence there. He paused a moment when we came to the lake, but kept walking slowly after me as I kept winding back to the recesses of the city. When I got back to my tiny cave, I nudged him in and sealed it behind us with another tiny landslide—grenades could be useful little things. He trembled against my hand as I gently pushed him down onto the foam mattress.

"Sleep, now. You're safe here." I laid down and pulled him over to me and he turned to cling, his eyes glowing and desperate in the dark. "You're home. We'll sleep here together. I won't leave you again. I won't let her touch you."

I snuggled him close to me and pulled the blanket over us. He shuddered softly, as if crying.

I hate the bitch. Peace… Joy… Ohmmmm…

"Good night, Vincent." I kissed his temple, wrapping my arms around him to keep him safe against me. I wasn't going to let him go again. I wasn't going to repeat my past mistakes. He was safe and I was going to make sure he stayed that way. We were safe. Let her do what she wanted with the pathetic Planet. As long as Vincent was sheltered in my arms, I didn't care. "Welcome home."

Sleep is a marvelous thing.

They say it and time could heal any wound.

I hope, for once, they are right.


	2. Bad Day

Now a Monster

Chapter 2: Bad Days

* * *

**Zack**

The lifestream swirled around the Planet, not just in streams, but in pools and eddies. In the north was the largest and most stable pool, sometimes referred to as the Promised Land, though some declared the pool in Mideel to be a better Promised Land, and referred to the Northern Pool as "That Place" while the Northern Pool's populace looked down their noses and called the Southern Pool, "The Puddle." Some people, mainly those who never traveled much in their mortal lives, preferred the quick flows that twisted through the oceans and brushed against the land which was affectionately called The Great Slide. Others liked surfing the lazy eddies over the Western Desert.

Zack liked Edge and Midgar. Sure, others thought the area was a dump, but he liked the area's stubborn refusal to just roll over and die. It didn't hurt much that there was a certain Ancient girl who liked the area, or that his friend Cloud, the Second (1) lived there, and it was only a bonus that his best friend Seph was napping in the Holy pool in the old church Aeris liked so much.

He was ambling through the streets, invisibly watching the bustle of people hurrying about their lives. Occasionally, he'd spot someone he once knew, either dead or still alive, and grin. The dead would grin and wave. The living would only feel a momentary twinkle of happiness as they kept hurrying on their way. He stopped for a moment at a bar that was owned by Cloud's friend, Tifa. The place was busy with the lunchtime crowd. The well endowed brunet was dashing through the tables balancing a tray in one hand and reading an order ticket in her other. Zack didn't spot Cloud, so he sent a few good feelings Tifa's way and strolled off toward Aeris's church.

Aeris was, as usual, kneeling amongst her flowers encouraging them to grow.

"Hey, Aer." He came over and looked down at the lilies. "How're the kids?"

"Fine." She smiled at the blossoms. "Cloud was here yesterday. He weeded them and gave them some fertilizer. They're very happy."

He never really figured out flowers. He like the things well enough, and Aeris loved them, but he really couldn't figure out why killing one plant to save another was a good thing. That was favoritism…wasn't it? Weren't they supposed to protect all life, even the weeds? Bypassing the philosophical argument, he went over to where his best buddy was floating in the middle of the Holy, sleeping soundly.

"He looks better. Don't you think?" Zack bent over, peering closely at his friend's face. "Not quite so…uhh…Jenovaish."

"Yes, he looks much better." Aeris continued to putter about the garden. "I'm sure he's all better now, but he needs his rest."

"Yeah. Yeah." Zack put his hands behind his back like a little boy who'd just been told not to touch. "Getting sliced into a few hundred pieces must really take it out of you."

"Zack." Aeris's voice seemed pleasant on the surface, but after years of togetherness, he'd learned better. That tone meant, "Shut up, Zack" with hinted threats of, "You get to handle the next quarrel between the Northies and the Southies", and a lurking, small promise of, "I'll have a headache for a week."

He sat on the edge of the pool and watched his friend float. Sometimes Sephiroth would wake up and they could chat for a few moments before Seph nodded off again. He'd been hoping today would be a chat day. He'd have gone to talk to Cloud, the First, but that Cloud had zipped off to a new whirlpool over Correl which was the newest carnival ride in the lifestream. He'd considered going off to Wutai and the old lifestream slide that whooshed down Da-chao's face, but that was no fun with no one to whoosh around with. He'd been hoping for months that Seph would completely wake up, and he could get him to go sliding.

"Zack, since I'm here," Aeris looked over at him, smiling, "I'm just going to hop over to see my mother."

"Sure." Zack kicked his foot and sent a ripple through the Holy. "No problem, Aer. I'm going to hang out here for a bit. I want to see Cloud when he gets back."

"Okay." She came over, pecked his cheek with a kiss, then left. "See you later, then."

Zack continued to watch Sephiroth, wondering if Aeris would notice if he woke his friend up. He kicked his feet a bit more, half hoping Seph would notice, but the Holy only gently rocked, Sephiroth kept sleeping, and the flowers kept sleepily bobbing their heads.

It was dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. If anyone had told him the afterlife was so boring, he'd have worked harder at staying alive.

"Hey, Seph. When you finish getting all unJenovaed, ya wanna go bug Cloud? He's fun when he's flustered. He turns colors: red, pink, and sometimes blue, if you really get him good." Zack gave the water another hopeful kick, but all that happened was Sephiroth's long, silver hair waved lazily in the ripple. "Or how about we find old man Shinra and tell him the Promised Land was under Midgar the whole time?"

Sephiroth didn't flicker an eyelash, so Zack jumped off the edge of the pool and tried floating too. It was nice enough. The Holy was like floating in warm water, but with more support. He'd read someplace, or maybe Sephiroth had read it to him, about salt water pools in the Western Desert that had such a high salt content that your whole body floated on the surface. They must have felt like this.

He considered taking a nap. He really didn't need to sleep anymore, but it was fun to do anyway. Sleeping in the lifestream gave him funky dreams which were always interesting.

"…Man, my life is dull…. Dull, dull, dull, dull…" Zack sighed and closed his eyes.

The Holy rocked him softly. He let himself drift towards sleep. The Holy rocked even harder.

"What the…" Zack frowned and stood up in the pool.

The Holy was now pitching back and forth harder. Sephiroth, with a half focused murmur, woke up just before the Holy bashed him against the pool edge.

"Hey, Seph." Zack waded towards him as the waves thrashed around more violently. "Hold on to something."

The taller man blinked around dazedly, "Zack? What?"

A swirl of darkness twisted around the pool edge. Not knowing what it was, Zack hurried the last few steps between him and his friend. He grabbed onto his waist and tried to pull him back into the center of the Holy, away from the gathering dark.

"I don't know. I've never seen that before." Zack grunted as Sephiroth suddenly lost his balance and tumbled them both into the middle of the pool.

"Something just grabbed me." Sephiroth looked around, but couldn't find anything. He lurched again as his feet were suddenly yanked out from under him.

Zack hung on. "Seph!"

The general hissed. "It's got me. Damn it. I can't see…"

Then Zack couldn't. All went black as the swirling circle of darkness suddenly rushed inward at them. He felt something try to pull Sephiroth out of his arms, but he held on tight, half hoping he wouldn't break his friend's ribs. There was a feeling of being spun, then a dizzying fall, and a hard thud of a landing.

Zack looked up. He was laying in the middle of Nibelheim's town square. Sephiroth was laying under him, unmoving. The town itself was on fire. Broken buildings were shattered open, bodies lay discarded in the street, and fire leapt hungrily through the town, feasting. Shadowy figures darted through the flickering light, dancing and hunting through the flames. The air was filled with smoke, the smell of blood, and another, muskier scent. It looked like that time, long ago when a Jenova possessed Sephiroth razed through the village, leaving fire and blood in his wake.

"Welcome, Jenova."

A lady stood in front of where he lay, sprawled across Sephiroth's legs. Sephiroth was limp underneath him and Zack was suddenly aware that he had no weapons. He was even more aware of it when the lady leaned over, a hypodermic needle in her hands. Behind her, a shadow flickered against the light of the fires.

"I've been waiting for you." She reached down and turned Sephiroth's head to the side, exposing the veins of his throat.

Zack lashed out, striking her hand as it lowered to give his friend the injection. The needle went flying out of her hand and smashed against the pavement. The lady stumbled back, her face twisting into a mask of pure hatred.

"How dare you!" She snarled. "Galian! Galian!"

The shadow behind her moved forward snarling. Zack wasn't sure who, or what Galian was, but he knew a bad situation when he saw it. He had no weapons and by the look of the weapons shop, he had little chance of getting any unless he wanted to take the time to do a body by body search of the dead. He was in the middle of a massacre. He had little idea how he'd gotten there, and he had an unconscious friend laying face down on the ground. Shadows were gathering around them, out of the flames. One looked like it was carrying the body of a man flung over his shoulder, lightening sparking around its form.

Zack didn't stay for introductions. He grabbed Sephiroth, heaved him over his shoulder, and jumped, hoping that he hadn't lost his Soldier strength while lazing about in the lifestream. His feet skidded on the tile roof as he landed, and a howl of anger broke out behind him. He glanced down, noticing a large purplish dog-monster with long red horns leaping after him. The lady was standing in the street screaming orders to the other shadows that gathered around her.

He darted to the next building and ran over the roofline, shifting Sephiroth to lay over both of his shoulders so he could run easier. A nasty buzzing sound grated down his nerves and he leapt forward as part of the building he was running over suddenly gave out. Another monster had joined the first, running parallel to him on the ground with what looked to be a chainsaw in one hand and a mask of some sort over his face.

"Man. Weird purple dogs…Chainsaws… what next?" Zack turned quickly and leapt down to put a building between him and the masked chainsaw thing.

The purple monster was still after him. He gauged the chance of killing the thing without weapons, but decided the likelihood was too low. The thing had claws and teeth. It also didn't look like any monster he'd fought before, which meant it could have magic skills that he wouldn't be prepared to deal with. The thing with the electrical sparks appeared from around a corner and started lumbering quickly after him. Zack was less than happy when he noticed the thing looked like an old corpse with rotting green skin.

Zack raced down an alley and found himself next to the old mansion at the edge of town. Remembering the caves Cloud's friend Tifa had once led them through, Zack bolted for the mountains. Old blasted orchards, crumbling stone walls, and weed grown fields flashed by him as he raced ahead of the nightmares following him.

"Okay…we're doing good." He could hear the purple dog thing panting and baying behind him. "Doing good. Just a bit farther."

For a few heady moments, he thanked Hojo for his experiments, as he raced through desiccated fields toward the caves. If he'd been a normal human, that monster would have been on him by now. Behind him, he could hear the crack of lightening and jumped to the side as a bolt slammed down where he'd been. He didn't pause to look. He kept running. The dog thing snarled on his heels. The sound of a chainsaw ratcheted to life and added a low threatening buzz to the air.

As he reached the incline to the first cave, he heard clawed paws scrabble behind him. He swung around and kicked, sending the purple thing back down the slope with a snarl. He dodged in and darted down a tunnel.

Where had that girl led them? Left? Right?

He leapt up landing on a small ledge as the dog thing raced into the cave. It paused, sniffing the air as he crept over to another cave opening and slid in. Thankfully, the scent of mako was heavy in the cavern's air. With any luck, it would confuse the senses of the monster. He heard the chainsaw buzz enter the cave and a few howls and snarls. He padded quickly through and found another opening, leading back outside.

Hadn't Tifa led them up…yeah, that was it, through the cave, up the mountain, past the reactor, and a quick trot to Rocket Town and the joy of weaponry.

The sounds of pursuit died, so he checked Seph, readjusted his weight, and went up.

"See. Doing good." He jogged along the twisty trail that headed up to the reactor. "We're doing good."

When he got to the reactor's parameter, he stopped. Up ahead, all three monsters were shuffling around. The dog thing was sniffing the air, whining softly and occasionally pawing at something on the path that led to Rocket Town. The green, sparky monster was mindlessly lumbering back and forth next to it, and the masked freak was standing, idly swinging his chainsaw around in arcs next to the reactor.

Zack backed away and retreated down the trail.

No wonder they hadn't chased him through the caves. He growled to himself. Well, two could play that game. If they all wanted to wait for him there, he could go someplace else. Correl was only a short skip over the mountains, or he could go south into Cosmo Canyon. Either was fine, and perhaps along the way, he'd figure out what was going on.

He patted his friend's leg. "Hey, Seph. Next time I complain that my life is dull, shut me up."

**Tseng**

Tseng sometimes wondered why he came into work. Working in Shinra had its own weird, twisted routine that was, if not dull, trying on his nerves. After a morning of desperately trying to compose himself for the day ahead, which involved mass amounts of green tea, meditation, t'ai chi, centering exercises, and a daily morning massage by a talented and overpaid masseuse, he would drive to work (more green tea, soothing music, aroma therapy) in his comfortable car. He would park in his usual spot, say hello to the parking attendant, ask the man about his family, step into the elevator (deep breathing, biofeedback relaxation techniques, humming soft childhood lullabies), and then step out into the pit of hell. Even Rufus wouldn't, even if chased by rabid tonadus, step foot on this floor of the building, and Rufus was less than…well…concerned about his personal safety.

His state of calm centeredness survived the puddle of purple goo that covered half the hall in front of the elevator slowly eating through the carpet. He didn't flinch when he passed by the daily schedule board and found a nude picture of Palmer (2) posted on it. The burn marks on the walls of the employee lounge made him take a few deep calming breaths, but he steadied himself quickly. When he arrived at his office and found his office door missing along with the rest of his furniture, equipment and files, he quivered a moment, but focused on the fact that his bonsai tree was still sitting in peaceful tranquility on the window ledge till he was sure his mental state was once again in equilibrium.

"Uh…. Hey, boss." Reno was peeking out his door that was to the right of Tseng's. "I had nothing to do with that." Reno didn't wait for a reaction, he slammed his door shut and Tseng could hear the lock click.

Rude stepped out of his office across the hall and looked stoically at the room. "I already called for maintenance. They'll bring new furniture by noon." He promptly left the vicinity, striding quickly down the hall, sidling around the puddle of goo, and getting into the elevator.

"Uhmm…you could borrow a chair from me." Elena, across the hall from Reno, peered out her door worriedly.

Tseng took a few more deep breaths, tried to push aside the picture of him trying to do his work while perched on a single chair with no desk, file cabinets, computer, pens, papers, or even a small post-it. "Thank you, Elena. That's very generous of you. However, I think I will take care of some outside work till my furniture arrives."

"Uhhhh…Okay, but… well, all maintenance could find was some stuff from the day care program…" Elena looked ready to bolt.

Tseng could feel his muscles tie themselves into knots. "I'll go see what I can do."

Reno bravely opened his door a crack. "Hey, boss. Rufus wants to talk to you. He's been trying to call you, but you won't answer your phone."

He had long ago explained to Rufus that the only way he survived being the Turk Leader was his morning of peace. Rufus had graciously accepted his need to calm his nerves and agreed to only call him on his office line in the mornings, unless it was an emergency. This of course was complicated by the fact that his office, except for his bonsai plant, was presently missing, including his phone.

"If you hadn't taken all…" Elena hissed at Reno.

Reno growled, "It wasn't me."

"Was so."

"Was not"

"Was!"

"Wasn't!"

"You are such a lying jerk."

"You are such a whiney bitch."

"Asshole."

"Rookie."

Tseng rubbed his temples and took deeper breaths. What was the most pathetic about the situation was that it happened every day: property damage to the building, photos of nude executives, missing furniture, fouled up requisition for new furniture, juvenile fight in the hall. It was all so sadly predictable.

He stepped into his office, scooped up his bonsai and walked back out, ignoring the continuing fight. He skirted around the purple goo (It was down to the concrete slab beneath the carpet and was eating through that.), walked to the elevator, and after a small wait (_deep, soothing breaths, calm, calm_) he stepped on and went up to Rufus's office where peace and happiness reigned for all of five seconds after the door opened.

"Why?! Why is this happening to me?" Rufus yelled.

Tseng looked around the presidential suite and tallied up the damage: desk-destroyed by what seemed to be a small explosive and remodeled into something looking like a tent, executive chair- gutted and bent and hanging like a gutted animal from the light fixture, other chairs- broken and used for kindling, small campfire- made by the chairs, some paperwork, and plants- stacked to the side of the campfire for fuel or used to hold marshmallows over the fire, priceless artworks- stapled together to create a small canopy for the tent/desk, and, of course, one irate president. "Are you alright, sir?"

"Alright! Alright!" Rufus was standing next to the remains of his desk, pointing at the fire. "That has all the paperwork for the meeting that's scheduled in…" He looked at his watch, paused to hyperventilate, and ratcheted his voice up a few octaves, "in seventeen minutes!"

Tseng kept quiet, standing still and at attention, still cradling his bonsai, and waiting for Rufus to regain his composure. This too was normal: Rufus's once a week collapse of all outward signs of calm as once again his secretary quit in a colorful manner. His last one, a sweet, pleasant, brunet with a sunny, upbeat personality, had poured kerosene through Rufus's office last week, disabled the fire system, and ran out the door chuckling madly after tossing a match in to create an inferno. Tseng had really hoped that her replacement, a geriatric grandmother of twelve, would fare better.

Tseng concentrated on deep breathing exercises while Rufus screamed obscenities, threatened world destruction, and ripped at his hair. _In…out…peace…I am calm…in…out…I breathe in tranquility, I exhale stress…in, tranquility…out, stress…._

After fifteen minutes, Rufus smoothed his hair, tossed his head, and walked calmly out of the room. "Call maintenance and get me new furniture."

Tseng nodded to the empty office and reached for his PHS.

"Maintenance."

Tseng took a deep breath (_in tranquility…out, stress_), "The president needs new furniture."

"…" The pause stretched.

"A desk, computer, executive chair, two occasional chairs, horizontal file cabinet, pictures, and plants." Tseng listed off, not even bothering to look around to confirm the damage. He had done this every week for the past year.

"Got a problem." The maintenance man muttered. "We… well…"

_In, tranquility… out, stress…__I am calm…_ "Problem?"

"For some reason, the last batch of furniture we ordered… it arrived as pre-school furniture." The man started babbling. "Honest, we ordered the right things. We have loads of practice. We didn't get it wrong but all the furniture is for three year olds. It's all small and red and blue and yellow and some of it even has…"

"Thank you, I get the picture." And he did too. The picture involved one of his Turks, a few minutes of distraction, and a bit of hasty erasing and scribbling. "Please go to the nearest office supply store and get the required items."

"Yes sir, I already sent someone for your office. I'll tell them to pick up the president's furniture too." The man tried to sound efficient, but Tseng could guess he wasn't pleased to be the one to inform the Turk Leader that the president's furniture (and his own) was going to come from a cheap office supply store instead of the high end warehouse that they usually got things from.

"Reorder the correct furniture and make sure you have spares. Have a cleanup crew in the president's office in five minutes." Tseng turned his back on the carnage and walked out. "I have another matter to discuss. We need a hazmat crew in the Administrative Research Department. We also need a paint crew in the employee lounge, too."

"Yes sir, right on it."

Tseng could practically hear the man salute. He hung up the phone, considered going back to his office and sit on the floor till his cheap furniture arrived, then decided to go to requisitions, get a laptop (His last one hadn't lived through a sudden, unexpected, slightly suspicious fall from the roof of the building.) and head to a café. He'd long ago started keeping backups, and backups of his backups stashed in his car, his home, his bank, the locker at his gym, and on his keychain. He could sit in a café, do most of his work, and be happily co-worker free.

Maybe he should just move his office to CosmoCoffee and forget the new furniture, or even better, he could set up a home office and commute to work only to meet Rufus. He could leave the resulting chaos in Reno's hands, hope the building would survive, and, when it got leveled to the ground, be unscathed enough to offer sympathy. Maybe he should suggest Rufus doing the same thing.

He and his plant were in the elevator on their way down to requisitions when his PHS rang. He considered not answering for a few decadent minutes, but ingrained duty and a sense of masochism made him pull the phone out of his breast pocket and answer it.

"Tseng."

"Tseng, come to the meeting." Rufus sounded cool and calm.

Tseng envied him. He envied him even more when he realized he hadn't been at work thirty minutes yet. "I'll be right there."

He pushed the correct floor and he and his bonsai waited patiently till the elevator went all the way down to the floor he'd been original destined for then all the way back up to the executive suites. He liked the executive level. It was calm. It was peaceful. It had nice views, a comfortable lounge, a washroom that wasn't apt to explode, and thick, plush carpet that didn't get melted every week and get replaced by carpet that was one step above the cheap, plastic indoor-outdoor carpet used for mobile home porches. The executive level rarely, except for Rufus's long battle with his secretaries, had corrosive puddles of goo, burnt walls, missing doors, and vanishing furniture. He once had an office there until the rest of the executives, tired of the normal, destructive, monotony of Tseng's life, petitioned Rufus to send him back down to the Turks' level. After the gas attack, which Reno swore was a mistake, Rufus bowed to the demands and sent him back in disgrace. Tseng supposed having half the executives in the company laid up in the hospital with various breathing difficulties tipped the scale.

He paused for only a moment to put his bonsai in the executive lounge that had real wood furniture instead of old folding furniture that looked like it had been abandoned at a curb, and went to the conference room that the meeting was in. When he arrived, he noticed Rufus was smiling pleasantly at a rather uncomfortable looking Reeve. Cloud Strife was looking lost and sleepy across the table with Barret Wallace sitting with his arms crossed over his chest snoring softly. It rather upset him that he hadn't even been aware that Avalanche was in the building and he hadn't been informed. Rufus had only mentioned a "meeting" and the rest of his spy network was busy disposing of his things, burning walls, acquiring toxic sludge, and bickering in the halls.

He bowed politely, which only Reeve appreciated, and walked around the table to where Rufus was indicating for him to sit.

"We've had some interesting news." Rufus smiled pleasantly to Reeve, which made Reeve look paranoid and startled. "Nibelheim was destroyed again."

Tseng wondered if the mansion was still standing. For some reason, nothing seemed to be able to destroy the place, not Sephiroth on a bloody rampage, not Avalanche fighting monsters in it, not even Ronso the Crimson's and Vincent Valentine's combined efforts. He would have suspected that Hojo had done something sick and twisted to the place, but Hojo seemed to have hated that place more than anyone else.

"While there were no survivors, we did get a security photo from the old mako reactor." Rufus pushed a facedown photo over to him. "It's quite…interesting."

Tseng flipped the photo over to see a grainy photograph of what looked to be a crude science experiment gone terribly wrong. What had the reports called it? Die..Den…Death…yes, that was it…Death Gigas. One of Vincent Valentine's alternate forms.

Reeve cleared his throat. "We have evidence from the…site… that Death Gigas was one of the ones attacking Nibelheim."

Valentine attacked Nibelheim? "Any idea of why Valentine would do this?" Tseng put the picture down on the table.

"None." Reeve looked sad. "We are afraid that he's…"

"Vampy's probably gone nuts." Barret decided this was the time to wake up and participate in the conversation.

Cloud frowned. "This isn't like Vincent. He wouldn't do this."

"But he obviously has." Rufus settled back in his chair. "What we need is to locate him quickly. If he was the one to destroy Nibelheim, he might also be responsible for the attacks on Costa del Sol and Gongaga."

Reeve nodded. "Yes." He turned to address Tseng. "WRO doesn't have an…intelligence gathering branch."

Tseng managed not to snort, roll his eyes, or otherwise give any sign that he knew that was a bad lie. Reeve and his mechanical cat-rats had a network that rivaled his. He smiled politely instead and wondered why Reeve suddenly wanted the Turks, because he'd bet his non-existent pension that the next words would be…

"So that is why we need the Turks to investigate the matter." Reeve looked earnestly hopeful. "Vincent was once a Turk, maybe you will be able to find him where we could not."

… his pension was safe.

Reeve nodded to Barret who sulkily lumbered to his feet and went over to a corner and picked up a small file box. The box was unceremoniously dumped onto the table scattering a small collection of books, a cheaply framed photo of Avalanche, a few letters and envelopes, a locked box of ammunition, and a worn deck of cards.

"When Vincent first disappeared a few months ago, we searched his place." Reeve waved to the pathetic pile of goods. "This was all we found."

Part of Tseng was shocked and outraged. Vincent Valentine had been a Turk Leader. He'd been one of the greats that young Turks, himself included, had looked up to as a nearly unreachable level of perfection. There had been a plaque, something no other Turk had ever been granted, in the lobby of the old Shinra Tower. The man had helped defeat Sephiroth, battled insane clones and an out of control summon, waged war on Deepground, banished Omega back to the lifestream, and all that he'd gotten out of it was a few dog eared books, some bills, a rusty box of ammo, and a pack of playing cards.

"Where was his apartment?" Tseng kept his voice level and professional.

"Vampy lived in Kalm." Barret growled, slumping back into his chair to glare at them.

Tseng had forgotten to include his friends in his list of things Vincent had. Yes, Vincent had those, didn't he. Lucky bastard.

"When we didn't find Vincent…well, we collected his things and the landlord rented the place out again." Reeve pushed a piece of paper across the table. "Here's the address."

Tseng glanced at it and pocketed it. Add to Vincent's possessions, or former ones, a cheap apartment in one of the slums in Kalm. "Didn't he do work for you?"

"Yes." Reeve nodded. "He… ran errands, looked into monster sightings, and other odd jobs."

From Turk Leader to errand boy. Tseng wished he'd tracked Valentine down and offered him a position with the Turks. While he'd have had to live with the mindless, routine insanity of his department, it would have been better than… this.

"Has there been any more sightings of either Valentine or one of his demons?" Tseng picked out the letters taking note of the day they'd been sent.

"A few, but nothing definite." Reeve picked up the scattered articles and put them back into the box. "We have a few vague reports of Galian at Costa del Sol when it was attacked and maybe Hellmasker, but no one has seen Vincent."

Rufus sighed, tapping his fingers on the table. "Tseng, put a few men on it. With the attacks on the Western Continent, we need to find him."

Tseng understood. The wording, the finger taps, the small sigh all communicated a distinct message. Find Valentine before these idiots do. Reel him in, lock him down, and above all keep Avalanche out of it. This is Shinra business.

"Of course, sir." Tseng bowed taking the box from Reeve. "I'll start immediately."

Rufus stood, smiling pleasantly, "Now, if that's all, gentlemen, we should adjourn and get to work."

Reeve stood. "Of course. Please, keep us informed about anything you find about Vincent. We've been worried."

Cloud and Barret got to their feet, too, Cloud still looking sleepy, and Barret looking irritated. Everyone nodded stifffly to everyone else and Avalanche left. Tseng made a call to Rude to make sure that they left peacefully under surveillance.

"And they…" Rufus hissed, stalking back to his destroyed office. "They…" He gestured to Vincent's box. "They say I'm a heartless bastard."

Tseng nodded but kept silent.

"Valentine was a Turk, he's part of the company. If I can keep that moron Palmer on staff, I can keep Valentine too, demons or no." Rufus slammed open his office door, grimaced at the bustling cleanup crew, and continued. "Even my father would have…"

Tseng never had figured that part out. Veld had served Shinra faithfully for over twenty five years and was brushed aside with no thought. A couple of the older Turks, before Sephiroth had given them an abrupt retirement, had served even longer. The late president had treated the entire department like disposable hand wipes, but not Valentine. There had even been a small memorial service in the main lobby on the twenty fifth anniversary of Valentine's death, with the president giving a speech and a small wreath of flowers that was hung over Valentine's plaque. It had been mandatory attendance. Even the science department had been wrenched out of their labs to stand around for the ceremony, though Tseng had thought Hojo should have had the decency to bow out. A man's killer shouldn't go to his memorial service.

"Find him, Tseng. Do what you have to do, but find him."

**Cloud**

"Waste of time." Barret slumped back into the expensive leather of the WRO limo that was taking them back to headquarters. "Should have just hunted for Vampy ourselves."

"The more people looking for Vincent the better." Reeve fussed at his briefcase, refusing to make eye contact with his friends. "Like it or not, Shinra still has resources that we don't."

"Like the Turks." Cloud murmured.

"True." Reeve shook his head. "I don't like bringing them into this, but…"

Cloud frowned looking away from his friends. "None of us want to kill Vincent."

"I'd do it." Barret growled.

"You don't have the ability." Reeve looked out the window watching the streets blur by in grays and muted greens. "He'd kill you in minutes."

"Would not." Barret puffed out his chest, but his eyes were uncertain. "I stood up to Sephiroth. I can take out a vamp."

Cloud shook his head. "I'm not sure I could. If he's gone mad, I don't know if I could take him out."

"Do you think he has Chaos back?" Reeve bit his lip, his eyes still on the street.

Cloud shrugged as the car whooshed to a halt in front of WRO headquarters. A couple of neatly dressed guards stepped forward and opened the door. Cloud, Reeve, and Barret stepped out and walked into the building. The halls were full of bustling people carrying stacks of paper, small boxes, clip boards, briefcases, and occasionally weapons. People grinned happily at them as they passed, giving small respectful nods before hurrying along to their destinations.

"Hey! Hey!" Yuffie raced through the hall and nearly tackled Cloud to the ground. "Nanaki's on the vid-phone and he's got a surprise! Just you wait! You won't believe it." The little ninja leapt back, nearly dancing in excitement. "Wow! You never said he was so cute!"

"Who?" Cloud rubbed his throat where Yuffie had knocked her head against his windpipe.

"It's a secret." Yuffie raced away. "Hurry it up!"

Reeve smiled and hurried after her. "Come on, I could use something good."

Nanaki was on the video screen listening to Yuffie when they came in. He looked mildly amused as he was bombarded with questions.

"What does he eat? Are his eyes really that blue? How tall is he? Are all those muscles real? And hair gel… how much does he use?"

"Nanaki." Reeve gently pushed Yuffie aside and took a seat in front of the monitor. "How are you? I haven't heard from you for weeks. I was getting worried."

"I am fine Reeve." Nanaki's gaze traveled beyond him to look at Barret and Cloud who lurked out of hyperactive ninja range. "It is good to see all of you as well."

"Tell them!" Yuffie danced around behind Reeve's chair. "Come on, tell!"

"Why don't I show them?" Nanaki stepped back, nodding to someone that out of the camera's range. "I'm sure he'll take this better from you."

As the black haired figure stepped into view Cloud froze.

"Hey, Spike. How they hanging?" Zack grinned.

* * *

Thanks for the reviews!

**In response to questions:**

Lucrecia stepping out of the crystal- In FFVII Lucrecia is seen outside of the crystal, then, later Death Penalty and the Chaos Manual are found in that cave. It is safe to assume that Lucrecia left them there since no one else could have.

Avalanche/WRO hunting Vincent- I was less than impressed when I played DOC with Reeve's treatment of Vincent. It was sort of like, "Hi Vincent, go take care of this huge problem and save the world. Sure, I know you have your own problems, but you're such a great guy, so deal with this one too. By the way, I am completely useless, and forget about me giving you any useful weapons or stuff, but I'll sick Yuffie on you, cheer for you at the end, and look mildly appalled when you seem to die. Oh, and yes, Yuffie outranks you in the organization. So suck it up."

I think that covers the questions I want to answer. You'll just have to wait for the answers to the others.

AN:

(1) I sometimes wonder if Tifa was full of it during the game when she talked Cloud out of the lifestream. Her logic was faulty, not that Cloud was smart enough to figure that out. Therefore, there is a very good possibility that Cloud, the one from the game, is a copy of the real Cloud who defended Tifa in Nibelheim's reactor and got a sword through the chest.

(2)According to Square/Enix Palmer actually survived his run in with the truck and went back to work for Shinra. I'm sure Rufus was thrilled… This also gave me the inspiration for Rufus's determination to get Vincent back. Rufus, to keep Palmer on staff, has to have some loyalty to his employees (I don't think Palmer is bright enough to blackmail Rufus successfully.) and I think he might feel that Vincent, being a former employee and having been hurt under Shinra's previous president's administration, is still part of the "family." I know that's reading a lot into that one fact, but I'm going with it.


	3. Chick

AN: Just looking at the length might give you a clue as to why it took so long for me to update. Thanks for being patient. This chapter has not been proofread. I'll try to get that done and post the proofread chapter along with my next post.

Now a Monster

Chapter 3: Chick

* * *

**Vincent**

I clung to the warmth next to me, shivering in cold. Part of me knew it wasn't really cold, that physically I was warm, but I couldn't stop shivering. The terrified cries of the dying screamed and echoed in my head. The smell of blood, the horrid, slick warmth of internal organs spilling over my hands, the taste of rotting flesh, I desperately wanted to get away from them, but I was frozen. Even the tears on my face felt like ice.

"Shhhh." Warm hands, warm arms slipped around me, driving some of the cold back. "Shhh."

I snuggled deeper into the warmth, trying to hide in it, hoping it would drive the memories away.

"Shhhh. It's okay. Shhh." The hands and arms wrapped themselves around me, keeping me close, keeping me away from the blood and death. "Shhhh."

I sighed, relaxing, feeling myself falling down into a warm, comforting sleep…

**00**

When I first saw him, he was like a half grown chocobo, all awkward wings, gangling legs, and naïve eyes. He was in the cafeteria balancing a tray with one hand and a cup of tea with another while trying to desperately dodge around an accountant without spilling his meal. He managed the feat, smiled proudly, then promptly slammed into a mail boy, sending his tray flying through the air in one direction and rebounding comically in the opposite one.

"Assistant Director… science." Veld muttered, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

We were having lunch over in a far corner. It was a "recommendation" from our boss that the Turks mingle with the other Shinra employees to improve the division image, so we all sacrificed our stomachs in a scheduled rotation. Today was Veld's and my turn to swill the foul goop that passed as food for the wretches consigned to this culinary hell. It was supposed to be roast beef, string beans, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. I considered it another attempt by my boss to kill me.

"Nice." I turned away. 

"Hmph. Not your usual." Veld idly tapped his pie with his spoon, watching in fascination as the stuff quivered like jelly.

The usual was some brainless, pretty toy that I amused myself with till it started whining and clinging, then I would explain, often with weaponry, that I was done playing and it would be better if the toy went away. Fast. The toy would leave, and I'd find myself a new one. They weren't hard to find, but they were…dull. The last toy had only managed to keep my interest for two weeks before I had to physically pull her arms off my waist and threaten to shoot her to get her out the door. It left a bad feeling in my gut when I was out the next day, eyed a pretty-boy store clerk, and realized the only difference was that he wouldn't want babies.

Mr. Assistant Director managed to pull himself off the floor with clumsy elbows and embarrassed smiles. He had nice hair, black, smooth, and cut into a soft, straight curtain that framed his face. His face was not what anyone would consider hansom and definitely not pretty: his mouth was too big, his eyes a little too deep set, and his forehead a bit too prominent. Still, it was an interesting face, full of life and edged by humor.

I guess that is what drew me to him. I lived death and he lived life. I walked through the world leaving death behind me, the death of people, dreams, ambitions, love. He walked through the world with a too wide smile and innocent chocobo eyes, wondering and excited about all the mysteries before him, butting his beak into everything with childlike abandon.

"Maybe, I need a change." I shoved the tray away, promising myself I would find a vending machine later and get a candy bar, one with nuts. Nuts are nutritious. I read that once in a magazine article.

Veld looked over at Mr. Assistant Director. "He's the long term commitment type. Too many problems with those."

I ignored him. He was used to it so went back to playing with his pie. I watched as Mr. Assistant Director wiped himself off and went to collect his spilled tray, all the while apologizing to the mail boy. Obviously, no one had taken him aside and explained the Shinra food chain to him. The mail boy should have been on his knees begging for Mr. Assitant Director's forgiveness.

He'd learn. At least I thought he would. 

Three weeks later, I was abruptly assigned to him to get me out of the way of figuring out where some highly classified information kept disappearing while my boss tried to find a non-suspicious way of putting a bullet through my head. I was furious. I knew it was all politics, money, and the quest for a fat retirement fund. The information was probably in Wutai where my boss had a nice, plump, bank account and I was babysitting a scientist with a habit of smiling at everyone. I think smiling was against Shinra policy.

I pulled myself together, calmed myself, donned my professional mask, and opened the door. It was when the door abruptly collided with something soft that made a half gasp- half grunt and collapsed that I realized I wasn't as calm as I thought. I peered behind the door, and there he was, half leaning against the wall and half sprawled on the floor clutching his head with one hand, a paper clip with the other, and blinking at me like a stunned chocobo chick.

I should have known he'd be trouble. Chocobo fledglings are notoriously accident prone. I dragged him to his feet, realized by his unsteady wobble that he needed medical attention, and half carried him down the hall to an employee lounge. He crumpled on the lounge's couch, holding his head and his paperclip, whimpering to himself. I stepped outside to check for any handy vending machines to get ice, than shrugged and called for a medic.

As luck would have it, they sent Bibi, the last toy I had gotten rid of. She trotted up the hall, looking at me with wide hopeful eyes that promised forgiveness, eternal love, and many children. Seeing that Bibi was an idiot who had gotten her job by spreading her legs for each and every one of her professors and superiors, I wasn't feeling in the mood to be forgiven. I was in the mood, as she kept darting longing glances my way, to shoot her.

I stepped out of the way and watched her carefully to make sure she didn't do anything too inept with my little hatchling. When her eyes strayed too much in my direction, I glowered back and set my hand on my gun. What a wonderful way to start an assignment. I wondered if I should just go back upstairs, shoot my boss, and declare myself Leader. It would result in complete chaos. I probably would end up dead, and it would trigger a bloodbath power-struggle in the Turk's ranks, but the idea still had appeal.

My mood improved when I noticed that Mr. Assistant Director was amused by the performance. Bibi fluttered; I fingered my gun. Bibi, remembering my pressing the gun against her throat, fluttered more; I reciprocated by flicking the safety off. Mr. Assistant's lips twitched and his dark eyes laughed.

How interesting.

When Bibi's nerves finally failed, bringing an end to the game, I carefully trundled Mr. Assistant back to his office. I settled him at his desk, and proceeded to play another game: ghost. It's a fun game. I'd amused myself with it on many dull assignments. The rules are simple. I get in the way, all the while I make sure I am not actually in the way. It's a game of fine lines, unconscious comfort zones, and personal boundaries. He would twitch in his chair, bringing himself into my space and unconsciously rebound out of it. I would sway away slightly then shift and sway back into his space at a different angle. He'd shift away and I'd reposition. Add to that a small dash of menace with a hint of silent danger, and he became twitchy.

I wondered how long the fledgling was going to last. With the head injury, I bet two hours. My fun was interrupted by Gast, who came in to check on his newest protégé. Word had it that the president was getting tired of Gast. The fallout probably had something to do with a woman. Most likely Gast got a bit more attention from the ladies than Shinra's portly president which was causing hard feelings. Mr. Assistant was the president's way of reminding Gast that he could be quickly and easily replaced.

My chick didn't figure that out though. He just smiled happily, if somewhat painfully, at his boss. Poor chick. I was sure he was going to get eaten. Gast wasn't going to let anyone take his position. He'd worked hard for it, and still worked hard for it. Lowering himself to trawl amongst the city's whores and back alley gambling dens had to grate on his aristocratic nerves.

Once Gast finished gloating and left, I bundled my little hatchling up and herded him back toward his apartment. After watching him for a few moments, I began to wonder how he ever managed to live to get to work the first day, much less survived each subsequent trip. He had no survival skills. He ambled along the city street, smiling at people who would have put a knife in him for his watch if I hadn't been at his side, and pausing in some of the worst, most dangerous areas to look at a flower, a pretty poster, or a nice window display. Even guarding the president on an official visit to the slums wasn't this bad. The president at least knew to move quickly, to not make eye contact, and to always remember Midgar was not a safe place to pause to look at the scenery in unless you had a Turk or two lurking at your elbow and a support team stationed in various lookout points as snipers.

When we got to his apartment, I was less than comforted. The family downstairs were all long term drug addicts (I could tell by their daughter's erratic behavior and nervous ticks that she'd been born with too many chemicals in her veins), the locks on the front door were cabinet locks that had been poorly installed, and the windows didn't latch down. I wandered around the small apartment wondering if I got down on my knees I could spot the chalk outlines from the previous tenant.

My chick was blissfully unaware of all this and stretched out on his couch. When I tried to tell him he was living in a death trap, he looked completely clueless and gave me lip.

Intresting. My chick had a backbone, a funny sarcastic one, too.

I wandered back to see if I could manage to fix the window latches as I pondered this. My hatchling was getting more interesting. He was smart, very smart to be exact. He was cute, maybe even hovering around pleasant looking with a hint of distinguished lurking in his future. He had a somewhat odd sense of humor, and now he had enough of a backbone to be mouthy to someone with a gun.

Very interesting.

He was still on the couch when I left, sleeping with a hand tossed over his head and the blanket tangled around him, all arms, legs, knees and elbows. I wondered if he'd grow up to be one of those mythical gold chocobos or if he'd just be a perky yellow. I slipped out quietly, hoping not to wake him, and made my way back to HQ.

Veld was waiting for me. "Wanna go fer drinks?"

The slurred together words, the hint of street accent, were a tip off. He had information that he wanted to tell me and didn't want to say it anywhere a surveillance camera or audio could pick it up. I played along, shrugging.

"Sure." I yawned. "Liven up my day."

We ambled out, chatting about secretaries, a new gun smith that had just opened up, and anything other mindless babble that two tired Turks would talk about. I tossed in a few yawns and complained about babysitting a scientist. He fumbled with his wallet and muttered about needing to stop at a bank. 

We looked like nothing more than two men leaving at the end of a long day. It was a good act, one perfected over many secrets, boring stake outs, and Shinra's policy of bugging every inch of the building.

A few standard dodges and twists later we were sprawled on the floor in Veld's apartment drinking. Personally, I had always preferred the clear biting warmth of rum, and Veld preferred the earthy tones of whiskey. His house, his rules, so I tossed back a shot of whiskey and nudged my glass over for another.

"So, get into his pants yet?" Veld tossed back his shot and licked a stray drop off his lips. 

"No." I accepted another shot and drank it. 

I wasn't going to confess I hadn't even tried. I knew Veld, and if I made even a tiny hint that I wasn't interested, he'd have been chasing after my chick. Comments aside, he was a long term relationship waiting for a chance to commit and he'd been right, my chick was a long term relationship in waiting, too. Veld also liked spunk and brains which my fledgling had plenty of. I wasn't ready to bow out of the game yet. Maybe I was turning into a long-termer.

"Hmmm." Veld filled my glass again then his own. "Old man Shinra has his eye on him. I'm guessing he might be the next director."

I nodded. The president may have been a fool in some areas, but he knew how to pick talent. For my fledgling to be in the position he was in, he had to be the best. The problem was, of course, he was a clueless chocobo chick. The politics, in-fighting, and backstabbing that were all normal operating procedure for Shinra were sure to turn him into giblets. 

"He's got Gast worried." Veld emptied his glass and rolled it between his palms. "The boss is worried too."

"Really." I leaned back against the couch. Veld was getting the conversation around to the point he wanted it at and I was interested in where he was heading.

"Only the boss isn't worried about Hojo." He leaned back to settle against an old armchair.

Funny. We always referred to our boss only as boss. He had a name: Johan Islie. In his days as a plain Turk, he'd been called Jin, but now only a few even remembered it. Since Jin took leadership, the death rate amongst experienced Turks had reached an all time high. Neither Veld nor I had any illusions. We'd be sent out on assignment soon and we wouldn't come back, leaving only the rawest of rookies to run the department. Our continued good health was only due to paranoia and teamwork.

"Keep an eye on yourself." Veld put his glass down and filled it. "Things are looking rough."

Rough indeed. 

I finally resorted to "accidentally" killing the boss after a group of his supporters showed up at a stake-out and opened fire on the car Veld and I were supposed to be in. Amazingly, Veld and I were not in the 

car as it got perforated but a couple of blocks over, sitting on a dumpster, sipping coffee, and appreciating the show. I ended the evening owing him dinner. I bet on some type of explosives; he bet on firearms. Still, it was tragic how the supporter's car crashed, killing everyone in it. Really. I guess that the boss just couldn't deal with the loss and got a bit out of control. You know how some people handle grief by striking out around them wildly becoming a danger to themselves and those around them. Sad that I broke his neck like that while trying to keep him from hurting himself. Really. Very sad.

The resulting silent war we all fought in the halls of Shinra's HQ and the back streets of Midgar was brief and bloody. Jin's "retirement" of most of the experienced Turks worked in my favor, and with Veld's backing, I quickly got control of the department. A few stragglers had to be weeded out, but when it was all over we had a nice memorial service for Jin and his loyal men. The president even had a whole fifteen seconds of silence in their honor. It was quite moving… or maybe a glitch in the intercom system.

It was even sadder when I had to give up babysitting my fledgling. He was fun to be around. He'd latched himself onto a silly, blond girl and was twirling around in relationship bliss. While she was a nice enough piece of candy, she was still too fluffy for him. She was completely focused on parties, dancing, and nice clothes, all of which were only minimally interesting to him. He liked nights out drinking, but unlike her, it wasn't the center of his life. He liked talking to people, quiet moments of thought, and tea, lots of tea. There were too many basic differences for them to work well together. I was wondering when he'd see it and move on. I had a bet going with Veld that she'd shack up with one of their richer friends who would provide her with more clothes and toys, and my little starry eyed chick would wallow in self pity till he noticed that his secretary was eyeing his attributes every time he walked past her desk.

Still, a new Leader's job doesn't allow for small indulgences like playing with chocobos. 

I didn't see him again till the president called me into his office and ordered me to go investigate a new scientific find up in Bone Village. Gast, who was sitting off to the side during the meeting, was certain that the sample that had been found was the keystone to building Shinra's "influence in the modern world." In other words, it had military applications.

I already had a preliminary report from an onsite operative, Dmitri, stating that there was already trouble. A few of the diggers had disappeared and one of the scientists that had originally marked the sample as noteworthy had been found dead outside of town with a broken back. While it looked like an accident, Dmitri was suspicious. By the amount of salivating and panting the president and Gast were doing just thinking of getting their hands on the sample, I was willing to back up Dmitri's suspicions.

"Take Hojo with you." Gast called as I headed out the door. "He's familiar with the area and as a bio-chemist he's ideal to study the sample onsite."

I paused to check with the president, who nodded.

"Yes, sir." I gave one last salute to the president and headed down to make arrangements.

I hadn't talked to my fledgling for nearly a year. I'd seen him around the building, still knocking his beak into everything and gangling into mishaps with a smile. I'd heard that he'd broken off with the blond girl 

when Veld gleefully told me I only half won the bet. She left him for a rich boy, but he never noticed his secretary eyeing his ass. I bought Veld a few rounds of drinks in Turtle's Paradise and he bought me a good bottle of red wine to even the bets.

He was sitting at his desk when I came in. He hadn't changed much. His hair was a bit longer, and he didn't look quite so dewy and naïve, but he was the same clumsy, chocobo hatchling I'd taken care of before. Since he was busy, I kept quiet and watched him. I considered playing ghost, but he looked unhappy enough and I could guess the news of his returning to Bone Village would be far from welcome.

When he paused, thinking over how he wanted to phrase something in his report, I interrupted, "You're presence is required in Bone Village."

He visibly wilted. "I'm rather busy. I have this project that Professor Gast has declared a top priority."

He tried to wiggle out of it, poor chick, not realizing he was doomed. The president had spoken and if the only way to get him up to Bone Village was in a body bag, I'd do it. I told him to be back in an hour to leave and left him in a flutter of panicked wings and small squawks of protest.

He was still cute.

I spent the next hour running through the procedures with Veld. While I held the title of Leader, both Veld and I really held the position. He was always better at politics and espionage and I was better at organization and coordination. My sudden relocation to Bone Village was annoying, but we managed to work out the logistics by the time my chick reappeared with a small mountain of luggage. It was only then did I realize I hadn't packed.

How bad could it be?

I found out when we got there. By the time we got to the inn, I had lost feeling in my feet. The lobby had a fireplace and I went to stand next to it, hoping that I wouldn't lose any toes, and my little fledgling went to greet what was apparently an old friend.

She was a pretty lady, too bad about her odor problem. My chick ran off to see if his old house was still vacant and I was hauled down the inn's halls to my room. The inn was a tent with canvas walls strung from the over arching bones. -Who decided to build a tent inn in the middle of the Northern Continent? I could see it in Mideel, with its balmy climate, but Bone Village!- My room was even less impressive. It held an old footlocker that looked like it had gone to summer camp with a rock troll, an old folding cot with two moth-eaten blankets on it, a malfunctioning kerosene heater, and a complimentary, eager to please bed warmer, if you didn't mind the fish smell.

"If you get cold, let me know." She smiled coyly at me. "You're welcome to spend the night with me in my room."

Freezing or fish?

I chanced freezing, hoping I could get to the general store and get a few supplies. I could also contact Veld and have him send some of my things. Dmitri also came to mind as a possible solution. I'd much rather sleep on Dmitri's couch than to have sex with someone who smelled like small, dead fish. As soon as she left, a maid came in to "check if I needed anything".

"Would you like more towels?" She was eyeing me like I was the last piece of chocolate at a chocoholic convention. 

Seeing that I had no towels, the bathroom's location had yet to be disclosed to me, I wasn't sure if a tent/inn would have hot water, and I was already thinking of hunting down my operative, I shook my head. "How about a working heater."

"Oh, sorry. That's the best one we have. You want to go someplace warmer? You could come over to my place; it's nearby. It's much warmer there. I wouldn't mind if you come." She emphasized her point by addressing the last remark to my crotch.

I hustled her out of the room, wondering if the women in Bone Village all had some hereditary personality disorder. I waited till she was gone and stepped out in the hall. One of the inn's bell hops strolled down the hall, did a double take, and stumbled back to stare at me.

"Wow. Haven't seen you before." He looked me over in a disturbingly familiar way. He was probably the maid's twin brother. "Want to come over for…uh…a drink?"

I reevaluated my previous thought; apparently everyone in Bone Village had the disorder. 

I escaped and went to the store where the shop clerk eyed my ass and suggested I come over to his place since he was sure he could find something to warm me up. Another customer and his boyfriend chased me down an aisle to ask if I'd like to go make a sandwich. The pilot of the helicopter we'd arrived in seemed to have caught the malady, hinting that he'd give me a ride if I wanted one. I barely paid attention to when a fellow guest suggested we share body heat when I escaped back to my room, telling myself that starting a mission by killing everyone in town was not an auspicious beginning.

I was now even colder than before. I'd lost most of the feeling in my hands and I was just about to go find Dmitri and demand a bit of warmth when Hojo called from the hallway. He'd set up a time for a meeting with the village's head man, Davies, and suggested I come over to his place for dinner. 

My chick was, if nothing else, sane. He was also a bit of a hedonist, so I could bet that his place had heat and the ever present hot tea he continually drank. I stumbled after him as he strolled back through town, waving to his friends. If my teeth hadn't been chattering so badly, I'd have told him to hurry himself along.

As I expected, his house was warm. I hurried over to the heater to assess the damage to my fingers and long lost toes. He bustled over to the tiny kitchen and fussed around with pots and kettles. I was considering sitting down next to the heater and basking in its warmth, when he came over and handed me the expected cup of tea. 

He stood looking at me a moment, then said, "Mr. Valentine, I was thinking. It might be better if you stayed the night with me."

I wondered if I had stepped off into some alternate dimension, or if I had received a head wound and was hallucinating this. Was my little fledgling was propositioning me? 

I looked him over carefully, but he just blinked innocently back at me, just a clueless chick bumbling his way through the world. He didn't have even the slightest hint that what he'd just said could be interpreted as a bad, overused, pick-up line. Ironic, since he was the one person in this freezer that I would have gleefully bedded. I'd been contemplating it since I went into his lab to tell him about our trip. I would've bet he'd be a sweet partner: playful, tender, and curious.

I accepted his offer and it was all set up. Davies arrived for a dinner of canned soup and cheap, red wine. I still wasn't sure about this Davies, so, after eating, I slipped out of the drinking and went back to sit by the heater. I wasn't cold anymore, but it gave them some privacy to talk and gave me a good vantage point to keep an eye on them and the door.

My hatchling got a bit tipsy, but with a bit of glaring, remembered to ask for the important things, like the sample, a bed, and some bedding. They drank the rest of the bottle then Davies staggered off. Hojo wobbled over to clean up the dishes, and I sat and contemplated the idiosyncrasies of Bone Village. I was guessing, by the glee in Gast's eyes, that Hojo and I would be here for quite some time. I had a few suspicions why I was assigned, mainly about a few financial problems that Gast was having and how convenient and confusing it would be if the Turk Leader was suddenly far away. Too bad Veld had been the one who was tracing that small monetary leak. I could guess my chick was here so Gast could mend fences with the president without any lingering replacements lurking in the halls.

Hojo had managed to wobble over to his bed and collapse on the small pile of pillows he'd thrown on it. My drunken chick did love his comforts. Too bad he insisted on inflicting poor quality jazz music on his guests though. As soon as he dozed off, I went and turned his music player off. Somehow, it didn't surprise me that he had a bright yellow one.

The bed and the sample came with a group of workmen, waking Hojo up. The two boyfriends from the store were amongst the delivery crew and gave me a friendly leer then looked over at Hojo enviously, obviously wondering what a gawky chick had that they didn't. I didn't feel like explaining. The very things they lacked were what would have kept them from understanding the explanation.

I set up the bed next to the fireplace as Hojo chattered happily, if not always completely coherently, to the men and offered them hot tea. The couple decided to move on to more promising adventures and started not so slyly propositioning my fledgling. I decided it was time to clean my gun. They got the message and scampered off. My chick puttered happily around a few more minutes, bumping into various pieces of furniture, and stumbling over his toes. When he decided to try to make more tea, nearly catching an oven mitt on fire, I herded him to bed and tucked him in.

The next morning he was bouncy and bright eyed. He made something that might have been fried eggs and bacon for breakfast then raced out before I could ask what the blackened lumps on my plate were. I was left contemplating whether I should take over the cooking or not when Dmitri knocked at my door.

I opened the door, ushered him in, tossed my breakfast into the disposal, and poured myself some of Hojo's tea. I put extra milk and sugar in it. Milk is protein and one of the food groups, so I was already ahead in the nutrition game, just four…or is it three more food groups to go.

Dmitri sat himself primly down at Hojo's bone table and I offered him some tea, which he accepted. He was one of my better informants. I'd considered making him a full Turk, but he liked his post, and had politely declined. I didn't argue. I would rather have him content in a lesser position than have him miserable, or worse quit.

"The scientist, Nakami, was found two days after he made his official report to Shinra about the sample they found." He nodded to the sample that was sitting in front of him. "It looked like he'd fallen into one of the excavation pits and broke him back."

"How far is that pit from town?" I sat down, nudging the sample to the side and setting his tea in front of him.

For some reason my chick had put the sample in the middle of the table on a small doily like a center piece. I would have thought it was some bizarre joke, but looking around his home, and remembering his apartment, I decided he had no taste.

"Only a ten meters." Dmitri sipped his drink. "Quite surprising that no one heard anything."

I hummed and considered. Ten meters was not far. A man who falls would cry out, unless something, like being already dead, prevented it. People would hear otherwise. "Any suspects?"

He shrugged. "None, right now. Or rather too many. The archaeologists found a small vein of silver a year ago and between the new hires to mine the ore and the prospectors who rove in and out of the village, I can't keep accurate accounts of who was or was not in the village at the time."

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and slid it across the table. "Here's a list of the people I am sure were in the village at the time. I added a section of those who might have been here at the bottom."

I pocketed the paper. It was a long list, but still better than nothing. "Good."

He went on to discuss local happenings. It was pretty standard, so I let him ramble, giving him his moment, thanked him for his efforts, tossed in a bit more praise for his work, and shuffled him out the door. I dug out my PHS and called Veld.

He promised to send some of my things on the next transport and promised to check the backgrounds of the people on Dmitri's list.

"How's your scientist? Good lay?" He asked after the formalities of the job were over.

"Don't know." I sat back and started absently nudging the sample's jar around with my fingers. 

"That's not like you." Veld was shuffling papers in the background. "I know you're interested."

"Hmm." He was right; I was interested. I just wasn't sure what I was interested in. The thought of doing nothing more than talking him out of his clothes and using him for a week or two of games left me feeling oddly unsettled. He was the type that would give himself to another person and expect a happily ever after or at least a happily few months after. Unfortunately, as any of my former toys would be glad to tell you, I wasn't the kind of person who stayed interested in someone very long. I'd get bored, start looking at new toys, and eventually find the latest, greatest toy on the market, leaving him hurt. The thought of my fledgling hurting made me feel…uncomfortable…maybe a bit guilty, an emotion I was only passingly familiar with.

"Unless of course you're going to fuck Dmitri." Veld tossed that out, probably to just irritate.

"Considering it." I had briefly during our breakfast meeting, but I didn't want to risk losing a good operative just because I left the grand toy box of Midgar behind. Not that I'd had time for a lot of toys. Since I ushered Jin off to the happy lands of retirement, I had time for only a handful, each lasting only a few days before I sent them away. Oddly, they seemed to be getting stupider, less interesting, and too artificially glossy. The last, a curvy girl from Costa del Sol with sloe eyes and pouty lips had only lasted a couple of days before I couldn't stand the thought of kissing through all her makeup. I also objected to when she tried to leave hickies on my neck. The last thing I needed was to show up to a meeting with the president with a hickey or two on my neck. She was a soft ride, but a shallow one. I finally shoved her out of my car in one of the slums suggesting she find herself a street corner.

"Yeah. Considering." Veld wasn't buying that. 

I frowned, becoming a bit irritated. My personal life was little concern. We had a suspiciously dead scientist, a highly important sample, and no solid proof that anything was dire enough for me to be freezing to death on the Northern Continent. I hated boxing with shadows. I nudged the sample again, noting it was moving oddly. 

"Any other problems?" I asked, picking the sample up and peering closely at it.

"A few of the rookies think it's fun to cop an attitude." Veld sounded like he might have done another "clearing of the ranks."

"And?" I sometimes wondered just how long I'd have to deal with Jin's mistakes. He'd let his favorites get away with gross insubordination and it had insidiously spread. Now even the newest of recruits would go strutting around with no brains and less discipline. Getting even small tasks done was often a battle of dimwitted attitudes and pointless violence.

The sample rippled.

"I dealt with it." Veld grumbled. "Instituted some of the old policies."

The old policies. I suppose the word draconian would describe them best. I remembered something about insubordination earning a quick trip to an icy bath in the ocean about a half mile off shore. The survivors, if there were any, were placed in solitary till they apologized, meekly and humbly, to their superiors. Other offences were even more direct. Whipping. I wondered if the old post was still out in the back of the gun range. My stomach twisted a bit in remembrance. I hadn't been the most ideal recruit Shinra ever inducted into the Turks.

The sample swirled.

"Hmm. Let me call you back. Something's come up." I barely waited for Veld to grunt an assent before I hung up.

When I was angry, it had rippled.

I gave it a try. I closed my eyes, picturing in my head my father walking out the door, leaving my mother crying. How I hated him for that. She'd found out he'd been sleeping with one of his co-workers at the university, a young, willow-slender math professor. He shrugged it off, not even bothering to deny it.

"You don't expect me to just stay home with you, do you? All you do is housework and whine about taking care of the boy." He had a habit of calling me that, the boy. He waved at her. "You've also gotten flabby, stupid, and lazy. Be happy you have what you have. If it hadn't been for the boy, I would have gotten rid of you."

My mother had worked hard, taking care of me, taking care of the mansion he'd bought to impress everyone, making sure everything was perfect at all times so that if he dropped in with colleagues our lives would look like the perfect, enviable model of happiness. If she wasn't fit and curvy, who was to blame when she had no time to take care of herself? If her conversation was less than ingenious and witty, what did he expect when she only had me to talk to? If she got tired, if she got worn down, if she was pale and drab and sad, who was to blame? How dare he walk into the house she kept so immaculate for him and tell her such things. How dare he make my mother cry.

I wanted to kill him for that, a bullet for each of my mother's tears.

I opened my eyes and looked at the sample. It was rippling angrily.

I tried another emotion. I pictured Veld dancing on a table at my promotion party. A few of our surviving friends had whistled, yelling for him to take it all off, and, drunk as he was at the time, he did it. I was happy one of the guys had brought a camera. The look on Veld's face when I got those pictures developed was nearly the best gift I'd gotten. Only Quicksilver topped it.

The sample swirled. 

I put it down and considered. When I think, I tend to clean, a habit from my mother. Since the house was disgustingly filthy, I let my hands do what they wanted while my mind tumbled things over. I 

considered cell membranes, electrical impulses, and other things. It didn't seem like a good thing that the sample reacted like that. To react to an emotion, you had to have something to react with. I pondered possible ways for this to happen. I didn't like my conclusions.

I had nearly finished when Veld called back with problems with security in the main lobby of HQ. The president wanted extra patrols in response to a newspaper article about the increase of crime in Midgar (mostly caused by his need to control the local drug traffic and the resulting turf war between the existing suppliers and the Turks.) It was stupid, but it gave rookies something to do, so we discussed new schedules and shifts. 

We were just finishing the details when my chick came back in and stood looking around. "Wow. You do windows."

I'd had an irritating day and I didn't need a hatchling warking nonsense in my ear. My gun was an easy solution. He scampered out again to go do whatever chocobos do when not knocking into furniture and tumbling over their own feet.

I went back to discussing assignments with Veld. I also suggested that the crime rate drop soon. With a bit of price slashing, a few strategic assassinations, and a lock on the supply routes, we could put the suppliers out of business in a matter of weeks. (If we could get funding, which was always a problem.) After that we could clean up the rest of the strays with a public "police action" of a series of raids on the home kitchens and street dealers. We could even pass the whole affair off as a routine sweep of the slums to keep the crime down, providing the PR people with fodder for their "Shinra's Stand Against Crime" campaign.

It took the better part of an hour to work out all the problems. When that was done and I hung up, I got called back in a few minutes. Veld wanted me to talk to one of the rookies, which meant he wanted my opinion about the rookie. It only took me a few moments to realize the idiot was an idiot and wonder why he was even in the Turks.

My chick came back offering a present and looking hopeful. I wondered what I ever did to deserve this, then, even while I was snarling obscenities that would have had my mother bearing down on me with the vengeance of a fury, I had a odd thought that I should do whatever I'd done more often.

He clambered in, pleased that his gift worked and started fluttering around. When I got off the phone, I told him what I had found out about the sample. He nearly bounced in glee when it reacted for him too. It kept him busy and out of trouble for the rest of the day, leaving me to work out the rest of the continuing string of problems that sprung up because of my relocation.

He's funny when he's working. The whole world goes away for him. He forgot that he'd started cooking some gray lumpy stuff that smelled vaguely glue-like, which I feared was supposed to be dinner. He missed his fishy friend dropping by to drop off groceries and a warning to me that I should learn to cook if I didn't already know how. He ran out of paper for his observations and never noticed that I substituted an old yellowed steno pad that I went down to the store to buy for him. When I put the grey 

lumpy stuff down in front of him, he ate it without even pausing in his scribbling and examining. When he started shivering, he kept right on working. He didn't even pause when I finally put a blanket over him to keep him warm. Only when I noticed that his handwriting was illegible and he was barely keeping his eyes open, did I interrupt and trundle him off to bed, where he cuddled the sample like a favored toy. Only when he was deeply asleep, did I manage to pry the sample away.

I didn't like the idea of him holding it so close while completely unaware and vulnerable.

I set it aside and went out. After being stuck on the phone most of the day with Veld and keeping an eye on the fledgling, I wanted to check if anything interesting had happened. Dmitri was in his house, frowning at a small fragment of bone when I knocked. I waited a moment then opened the door cautiously. Dmitri sat back down looking relieved to not have to leave his work.

"We have a small…occurance." Dmitri nodded as I came in. "A couple of the archaeologists are grumbling about missing equipment and their sites being disturbed." He nodded me in the direction of a plate of food that was sitting on the stove with a cover on it. "They're blaming the prospectors, but I'm not so sure. The sites that are being disturbed are the sites the sample was found in."

I took my plate, nodded my thanks and sat down to listen.

"I have also heard a few grumblings from a couple of prospectors at the store that people are digging on their claims." He carefully put the small bone piece in a plastic bag and put it in a small file box. "They blame the diggers."

"Getting the two sides to fight would cover a lot of tracks." I paused with a fork of fluffy mashed potatoes and creamy gravy midway to my mouth. "If anything happens, both sides will blame the other."

Dmitri nodded, picking up a small tooth and carefully dusting it off with a small brush. "I agree. I also found out another interesting fact. It seems that the dead scientist talked to one of the prospectors about his report. Nothing confidential apparently, but that prospector has disappeared."

"Perp or victim?" I wondered aloud, savoring the juicy roast I was eating. Dmitri was an excellent cook and I was already planning on more meals over here and leaving my chick to eat his canned cuisine.

"Seeing the man left behind all of his things: money, tools, clothes. I would guess victim."

I finished my meal as I mulled things over. Someone or someones were doing two things: killing anyone who knew too much about the sample and stealing tools to search for more of it. This of course led to the fact that they were still here, were likely to continue to stay here, wanted the sample, wanted something about the sample kept quiet, and were willing to kill anyone who knew too much about the sample. Conclusion: I needed to get closer to the problem that was developing, and I needed to get home before someone barbequed my chick.

"Thanks. I'll start looking into it tomorrow." I rinsed my plate off and put it in the sink. "Keep an eye open for anything else."

"Of course." He smiled slightly and nodded. "I'll look after Hojo if you need time."

I nodded as I stepped out the door, scanning the street. I wasn't sure I wanted Dmitri watching my fledgling. I knew Hojo would be safe, but… I brushed the feeling aside. Hojo would be perfectly safe in Dmitri's care. The man had gone through much of the same training in assassination and protection that I had. There was no reason for me to feel like standing guard over him like an anxious nanny.

Damn. Maybe I was becoming a long termer.

I walked back across the street and went back into Hojo's skull house. He was still snuggled in his overly pillowed nest making soft sleepy sounds. I checked around the place, just to be safe. The windows were sealed firmly shut, the flues of the fireplace and stove were still secure with their screens intact, but I made a mental note to check the outside tomorrow morning. I would rather not come down with a fatal case of gas poisoning in my sleep. The rest of the skull looked firm and secure. Even the door had an adequate lock. I'd have to requisition a better one, I decided, but with both Dmitri and myself keeping an eye on the place, I wasn't too worried. 

The only security fault I could see was my too trusting chick. He was sure to bumble his way into something that would singe his feathers. I settled onto my cot and considered what to do about him. He was such an innocent, happy hatchling. He liked everyone. He even liked me. He'd probably make friends with the killer and get his brains blown across a wall while serving the murderer tea. Even with a warning, he'd just keep smiling happily, looking for some mythical, dark, sinister person to be lurking in a shadowy corner, while completely ignoring the jovial lunatic that wore a friend's face. Locking him and the sample into protective custody would make him miserable, and having to stand guard over him while searching for the killer would be problematical. I also didn't like having him angry and hurt. I'd much rather have him smiling and warking silly nonsense at me. The only practicable alternative was to hunt the killer down fast, before they could harm him.

I was out of the skull and at the store early the next morning while soft chocobo snores still drifted through the skull. I ambled in with my hair rumpled and my tie tucked into a pocket, and drifted over to the counter. The counter clerk, the same one as before, grinned at me and promptly dropped his girlie magazine to socialize a bit.

"How you been?" He eyed me over. "Heard you're staying with Hojo." Subtly is not a Bone Villager trait I decided as his eyes lit up, looking for a juicy piece of gossip.

I shrugged but saw an opening. "Yeah." I laughed softly. "We've known each other since he came to Midgar."

"Good friends?" He looked both pleased that he got a bit of news to share with all his friends and disappointed that his dreams of getting me horizontal, or even partially naked where fading fast.

"More." I looked around, ignoring his disillusionment. "We forgot a few things though. Have any lube?"

The kid sighed. "Back shelf."

"Thanks." I went back and got the stuff, leaving him and his imagination to supply the details I wanted him to think.

When I got back to the counter, couple of archaeologists were now there, laughing as they bought coffee and talked to the clerk. I put on my most amiable expression and slumped lazily over to them. They easily made room for me as they waited for the clerk to finish with their coffee.

"…then the side of the pit just fell in." One laughed waving his arms in a whooshing motion. "And there it was, after three months of digging…a sewer pipe."

"Oh man, burned." Another laughed then turned to me. "Hey, you're the new guy. Nice to meet you, I'm Banning," he waved to his fellows, "that's Gopher, Keno, and Tomas."

They all gave me friendly smiles and nods. 

I smiled back, "Vincent. Nice to meet you."

"You ever do digging?" Gopher, a small, wiry man eyed me over. "We could use some extra help."

I considered it a moment. Getting in with the diggers would help me investigate, but if I wanted to shovel mud, I wouldn't have become a Turk. There was just something about standing knee deep in dirt that had never appealed to me. My father would have said I lacked a good work ethic. I preferred to think of it as playing to my strengths.

"No." I shrugged regretfully. "I'm not much for digging. I heard there was some kind of old city up here, though. I was kind of hoping that since I'm stuck here that I could look at that."

Keno nodded. "I'm heading up an expedition for the city in a couple of days." He eyed my modified uniform. "We could use someone to help us out with the monsters we might encounter."

"Great. Count me in." I laughed ruffling my hair out of my face, making it look shaggier and more ill-kept.

"Whatcha' doing up here anyway?" Banning had his coffee and was sipping it as the others got served.

I ordered a coffee so I could join in the group more easily. "Mainly just make sure Hojo doesn't get eaten by any lizards and put some locks on his doors." I shrugged and offered any lurking killers a bit more encouragement to underestimate me. "Routine stuff really. I think the boss just wanted me out of his hair…you know, politics." I gave a small grin. "But hey, it's the first vacation from my desk that I've had in years."

Thanks to my dear father, I knew academics all lived, breathed, and despised office politics. They all gave me comforting looks laced with a familiar expression. My father wore that look enough for me to 

catch it. It was the "you're a slacker" look. While it irritated, it also worked for me. A slacker Turk was hardly a threat. A slacker Turk who was fucking his housemate and taking a vacation was even less of a threat. Add to that my lazy, dumb-ass attitude, the desk jockey comment, and the lingering hint that the boss wanted me gone, and my killer should be quite smug and comfortable.

As they all got back to more interesting topics, like bones, bones, and even more bones. I sipped my coffee and ambled along with them as they went back to the excavation pits. I knew basically what they were doing, so I could make a few semi-intelligent comments from time to time, and since they were a friendly bunch, I had no problem fitting in. In a couple of hours, I'd seen all the photos of their families, dogs, and girlfriends. I even made myself useful by fixing a malfunctioning arc light and convincing a broken down jeep to live another day.

I also attracted a following. The younger archaeologists, mainly the interns, clustered around me like hungry dragons eyeing a tasty young deer. They preened and flattered and offered their undying devotion. It was like standing in a toy box, all I had to do was reach out and select one to play with. I finally called an end to the festivities by waving to my new coffee buddies and went back to the store to see if Veld had managed to send me my things yet. One of the more devoted of my admirers, Meg, tagged along with me like an overeager puppy.

"You must be very important." She gazed up at me with wide, beseeching eyes, begging for a moment of my time. I knew if I gave in, I would have to scrape her off with a knife, which would probably interfere with my budding friendship with the archaeologists.

Davies had a box for me, which I had to sign for. While I scribbled my name, Meg picked up the box for me.

"I'll carry it." She gave me a brave, hopeful smile. "I'm trying to build up more muscles so I can dig better."

I nodded and walked back to the skull. She toddled along at my side, smiling proudly that she had managed to earn a small crumb of my gratitude. I was less than thrilled and it irritated me. She would make a good toy. She would, in her eagerness to please, allow me access to the diggers and cement my position with the archaeologists. I'd also have a warm bed to amuse myself in and it would bolster my image of a do-nothing slacker with the added spin of not even having enough integrity to be loyal to my lover. With a bit of handling, I might even manage to get the killer to believe I was willing to look the other direction for the right price. So why did I want to grab the box and pitch her across the street?

The answer was sitting at the table filling out forms as I walked in. While Meg put the box down and prattled nonsense at me, I went over to the fire and glowered at it. I wanted the chick, the silly, smiling, chocobo fledgling that was too smart, too innocent, and nearly had "I'm going to be a lot of trouble" tattooed on his forehead. And worse, I was realizing that I didn't want another toy. I wanted him, only him and…

…he was flirting with Meg.

I had honestly never been in that position before. When I wanted someone, I only had to indicate a bit of interest and I got them. To finally decide I really wanted one person, and only one person, and realize that they were out the door with someone else was a situation that I'd never experienced. I stood and looked at the door they'd just exited out of for awhile, then dug out my phone.

"Veld."

"What do you do if you want someone and they're immune?" I continued blinking at the door.

I could hear my partner sniggering softly. "Finally figured it out, did you."

"Well? What do you do?" 

"Wait a moment. I want to bask in this moment." Veld wasn't done laughing, or rubbing it in. "Vincent Valintine, Mr. Two-Week-Relationship just realized he's got his dick in a knot over a scientist."

"Veld…" I knew it was useless, but I tried to sound menacing enough for him to detour away from his game.

"And Mr. Scientist isn't interested." Veld snickered. "Tell me, have you figured out that he's had you by the balls for about a year now?"

"Veld…" I pointlessly tried to sound even more menacing.

"Oh, I wish I could see this." Veld sounded absolutely gleeful.

"Answer the question, Veld." I growled.

"He's immune to the Valentine charm?" More snickering. "Wow."

"He just left with an archaeologist named Meg." I mumbled, embarrassed. 

"Did the big mean archaeologist take your toy away." He cooed.

"Veld! Answer the fucking question! What do I do?" I promised myself I would make Veld pay for this someday, perhaps, a tour of the accounting department. There is a lot of corruption in accounting. He'd be perfect to investigate it.

"Get rid of her." Veld sighed. "Really Vincent, she's just an archaeologist. Either feed her to the vlakorados or pack her off. She's hardly a problem."

I nodded to myself. Of course, it was that simple. I'd just been so rattled that I reacted instead of acted. Thank the Planet that I had Veld. "Thanks."

"Now that we've got that under control. Any news?" 

We spent a few hours exchanging ideas, straightening out the daily problems of keeping the Turks running smoothly, and making a few arrangements for long term assignments. When we were done, I 

made a few more phone calls. There was a man, Jenkins, who worked down south. I'd come across his work while reading about the Ancients. The most fascinating thing about him was his nearly perfect recital of one of his graduate student's thesis without once mentioning that it wasn't his work. I gave him a call and we had a friendly little chat. When I mentioned my dear friend Meg, he was more than happy to have her join him in his quest for knowledge and of course, fresh material to plagiarize from.

By the time my chick wobbled back in, things were back in control. I looked him over carefully while sitting by the fire I'd built in the fireplace and pretended to read. He looked flushed and happy, but not freshly bedded, which meant Meg would live to find out about her new job tomorrow. Jealousy was new to me and I decided that I should explore the area thoroughly. My hatchling puttered around looking at his bed, digging into his clothes, eyeing me speculatively, obviously wondering how to get rid of me long enough to put the bed to use with Meg.

It didn't bother me. I'd already taken care of the situation. When he went in to take a shower, I went to bed, thinking of a few ideas about what to do with my chick once Meg was out of the way. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. Not with my chick.

I spent the morning drinking coffee and laughing with Banning, Tomas, and Gopher. I wasn't ready to prod yet for information, but I still managed to learn a lot. The man who died, Nakami, had been one of the old timers in Bone Village. He'd gotten reputation for being a hard ass, no nonsense, slave driver. He'd made a lot of enemies, but had been respected as a scientist. His research had been impeccable. While his sudden fall into a pit was tragic, many believed that he'd been helped in by an irate coworker he'd pushed too far with his demands for perfection. No one mentioned the sample, so I sipped, grinned, and let the conversation flow around me.

Dmitri wandered by and made a few polite noises while collecting some equipment he'd left behind. The others greeted him with a few small waves and an offer of coffee, which he declined, but he quietly listened to a few stories of the wonders of finding small bone fragments as he packed his gear. When Davies arrived with a large box of donuts, distracting the others, he made a quick motion that he wanted to talk to me and left.

I stayed awhile, chomping donuts and laughing with my newest buddies. Davies seemed like a good man. I wondered why he was in Bone Village. I made a mental note to have Veld look deeper into his past. A good man, as they say, is hard to find, but bad ones always come to the surface. Seeing him in such an important position in Bone Village made him automatically suspect. Not suspect enough to make me refrain from making a few arrangements for Hojo's afternoon.

When I was satisfied that my chick would be kept busy and in groups of many witnesses, I searched out Dmitri to see what he had to report. He was in his house, watching Hojo's door intently.

"Two more last night." He greeted me.

I was used to reports like this from various people. Veld was notorious for ambiguous comments, and working with him I'd developed a few survival skills. Mainly, wait. I sat down in a slightly dusty chair and watched Dmitri bite his lip.

"A couple of prospectors were found dead out in the fields." He waved a slight, agitated hand. "It looks like a vlakorados killed them, but I got a good look at the bodies. There were bullet wounds."

I nodded. "Any connection to the sample or the other killings?"

He looked at me quickly, "Yes. I talked with a few of the other prospectors. They said the two had been saying they found more of the sample and were trying to sell it."

"I take it they found another interested party." I frowned. "Any leads?"

"Just this." He held out a tiny plastic bag with a tiny brown smudge in it. "I found it under one of the prospector's fingernails."

I held the bag up, trying to make sense of the smudge. It looked like dirt to me, a bit powdery gray, but still dirt.

"The coloration caught my eye." Dmitri jittered nervously. "Most of the dirt up here is heavily sedimentary. That is sand like you'd find on the sea floor. The only place I know that has sand like that is on the other side of the Sleeping Forest."

"Were the prospectors familiar with the area?"

"Only the archeologists go there. You have to have a harp of some kind to get through the forest and those are hard to come by." Dmitri gave me a hurt look. "I'm sorry Vincent, but…well…this is why I requested this post… I don't do well with dead things."

An odd comment from someone who worked dusting bone fragments, but I understood. "Fine. Keep an eye on Hojo. I'll look into this today."

I went back to the skull house contemplating whether sending my chick off to the mud pits to rub shoulders with his possible killer was really a wise move. Hojo was fluttering around, innocently arranging large stacks of paper on the table and floor with a happy smile on his face. It was the same besotted look he'd worn while looking at his fluffy girlfriend from a year ago. 

Well, at least one of my problems was taken care of. Meg would have been told of her good fortune by now. Now I just had to keep him alive and find the killers.

While I mulled this over, he danced out the door. I saw Dmitri promptly head after him and wrestled with myself over whether to go follow my chick to keep him safe or go hunt down the killers. I chose the killers and ambled back to the store. Keno and Tomas were lounging around the counter with the clerk.

"Hey." I wandered over oozing as much laziness as I could. 

"Vincent!" Keno smiled. "We're going to get a harp, want to come?"

"Harp?" Yawned, but took note. If they had to get a harp, they couldn't have gotten sand on them, which in turn couldn't have been picked up by the dead prospector. Still, I knew how easy it was to tell a convincing lie so they were still suspects. "Why do you need a harp."

"It's a Lunar Harp." Tomas informed me. "It lets you pass through the Sleeping Forest. Otherwise, the forest will kill you."

I gave a have assed shrug. "Oh, you mean to go to the city. Okay." I looked vaguely around the store as if I expected the harp to be sitting on a shelf. "Where do you get it?"

"We've got to hire some diggers." Keno slumped. "It's expensive and well…"

Apparently archaeologists, like most other academics, were dead broke. While I wasn't about to tell them that as Turk Leader I got paid more per month than they probably saw in a year, I did give them a grin and a laugh. "No problem. I got money. What's the fun of going on vacation broke?"

They both perked up and in only a few minutes we had a small crew of explosive happy diggers. They definitely were the stupidest bunch of diggers I'd ever met. Most at the very least know how to set charges, but these twits couldn't even do that without massive amounts of supervision. We spent most of the day calculating charge placement and trying to locate a harp without success. 

I finally left Keno and Tomas to the mercy of the diggers and went to check on my fledgling. He was still being hauled around the muddy field, being shown just how all those brown stained clothes that littered Bone Village's streets came to exist. I watched him from one of the field tents, drinking whiskey laced coffee with Banning and Gopher as he was subjected to Bone Village's version of a mud bath. He looked like a lost chocobo who was trying to make the best of a bad situation. When it looked like they were nearly finished with him, I nodded goodbye and ambled out, passing Dmitri, who was quietly sorting through the day's finds under one of the canopies overlooking the excavations.

I'd had a hard day and decided that a small break was in order. It was time to get to put aside my job and get to work on my silly chick. I decided during the day that I wanted to play a bit. It had been a long time since I had time and the inclination to indulge in a bit of fun with a prospective partner and I had plenty of both now. After getting over the initial shock, I realized that I could still bed him easily. I'd seen his eyes wander in my direction a few times and I was familiar with the speculation I'd seen in them. I could have just gone home, waited till he arrived, and cornered him. It would have only taken a few minutes to get him out of his clothes, and I'd have had him spread eagerly across a bed. I could've then spent the night feeling my fledgling arch, twist, beg and pant under me. He'd be delicious. And while the tight, anticipatory knot of pleasure in my belly urged me to do it, I held back. I could wait for awhile. It would be worth it too. To watch him wiggle, struggle, and finally submit would be nothing short of extended foreplay. 

So I went home and took a shower. I waited until I heard him fumble for the door, turned off the shower, whipped a towel around my waist, and sauntered out to meet him, keeping an indifferent expression on my face. No use giving the game away during the first round.

He nearly had a coronary on the spot. He stood frozen in the doorway with his mouth gaping open and his eyes bulging from his sockets. I don't even think he was breathing. It was a far better reaction than I'd anticipated, but I pretended to ignore him walking over to my bed where I'd left a clean pair of pants.

"Close the door. You're letting in the cold." I tossed over my shoulder as I scooped up my clothes.

He made a little choking noise and fumbled around a bit, but finally managed to get the door closed. While I finished dressing, my chick had disappeared behind the curtain around his bed. I watched the curtain tremble for a bit, laughing slightly to myself.

Can I help it if he's cute when he's flustered?

I wasn't ready to call it a night though, so I went over to the kitchen, which is in direct sight of his bed, even with his curtain. I dug around a few minutes for a meal and came up with toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I would have liked to make my own soup, but vegetables were a rare commodity in Bone Village. I'd only seen a few wrinkled potatoes and some old, withered cobs of corn in the store.

He seemed to have recovered from his trauma, but his unsteady, quick breathing still showed my chick wasn't entirely calm. As I moved around making dinner, I occasionally glanced at him. His eyes were riveted on me. Every tiny gesture, every step of mine was being carefully watched with dark, confused, hungry eyes. 

After a few minutes, he warily got up and eyed the sandwiches I was making. I set his food on the counter and I picked up my meal to sit by the fireplace to watch him. He picked up his plate and his bowl of soup and jittered nervously over to the table. I could tell he wasn't looking at me. He was working very, very hard at not looking at me in fact. I set my plate aside and began reading, watching him desperately focus on his food, the table, the sample, the floor, the window, and anything else, but me. He had just finished eating when I decided he needed a bit more attention.

"Aren't you going to say thank you?" I peered up at him over the edge of my book.

His brain stalled. He sat opening his mouth and closing it like a fish gasping for air with no sound coming out. For the first time in years, I wanted to start laughing till I couldn't breathe. My oh-so-intelligent chick was standing gaping at me while his eyes got wide and panicked and he turned bright red.

It took him awhile, but he finally managed a small squeaky, "Thank you."

I let him go. I looked back down at my book, smothering my smile. "You're welcome."

He bolted back to his curtain and hid. I stayed up awhile more, finishing my chapter and contemplating what I wanted to do to him next. I figured something along the lines of my walking in on him while he 

was showering. It would be easy to do, and with a nonchalant approach, would send him careening around the skull. Perhaps a comment about a bruise on his hip… I could easily arrange for the bruise to appear and when I stepped in on him, I could comment on it. If I managed to place it well, say on the front of the pelvic bone, I could even stand there eyeing his lower anatomy openly while making him engage in a serious conversation. Hmmm… I could even reach out and touch, purely out of concern. He was in my care after all and evaluating the seriousness of a bruise would only be part of my job.

The next morning my chick ran out of the house early, heading for trouble no doubt. I wrenched myself out of bed and stumbled into my clothes, cursing his sudden need to be an early riser. There were killers lurking around and he suddenly had the need to wake with his fellow chocobos. I shadowed him till he got to his friend Bettina's and invited himself to breakfast. I grumbled and stamped my feet in the cold, cursing Veld for not sending me some supplies. I just started to go roust Dmitri and go back to my comfortable bed, when I noticed Davies standing glaring at the door Hojo had just disappeared into. He caught me looking and with a slump, came over.

"You, too?" He nodded towards Bettina's door. "I heard you and him were a couple."

That hadn't taken long, not that I had expected it would. "What do you think they're doing." I hunched my shoulders as if upset.

"Talking, eating." Davies looked at the door. "They used to do this nearly every morning when he lived here before."

Hmmm. I hadn't known that. I'd gotten rid of Meg only to have a more dangerous opponent take her place. I shrugged it away. It was an easy enough fix. After all, the solution was standing in front of me radiating jealousy.

I gave a small snort, getting his attention. "I don't see a problem here. It should be easy enough to end this." I nodded toward Bettina's place.

Davies gave a small shiver. "Maybe. Maybe not." He glanced at me. "You get close to Bettina yet?"

I nodded.

"Then you see the problem." He shook his head. "Damn, I love that woman, but that smell…"

I grinned. I knew my chick. If he wanted that woman, he'd find a way to get around that smell. Why not let him figure it out? Then I could step in, keep him busy, and Davies could reap the benefits.

Davies smiled when I shared my thoughts. "I'll owe you one. A big one."

I liked that. We shook on it. I spent a couple more minutes looking at Bettina's door then decided it was time that went to work. My chick was safe enough with Bettina. I headed for the store. Tomas and Keno were there looking over excavation maps and the notes that we took yesterday in our search for the harp. I got some coffee and one of those plastic encased pastries for breakfast before I spread more 

money around to more diggers and we all went off to blow up more turf. Gopher joined us around mid-day looking upset.

"Guys, anyone know what happened to the site maps for the northern pits?" He shoved his hands in his pockets, slumping. "Davies swears I had them last, but I left them on his desk. He's ready to skin me."

I scratched my head, looking as lost and dumb as I could. "Maps? I dunno."

Keno shook his head. "I haven't seen them, sorry."

Tomas shrugged. "Me neither. Have you asked Banning? He was in the office yesterday. Maybe he saw them."

Gopher shook his head, slumping more. "I already asked. He says the last time he saw them I had them."

Keno, Tomas, and Gopher glanced back in the direction of the store. I took the time to slump against a nearby tree trying to look sleepy and lazy while I thought quickly. The northern pits would have to be the ones that the sample had originally been found in. They were also the pits that Nakami had been unceremoniously dumped into. But why would the maps be needed now? Unless there was something useful on the maps or something that wasn't meant to be seen. Then again, Gopher was not the brightest rodent of the pack; he could easily have lost them.

The three commiserated for a time. I pretended to nod off. The diggers fumbled around with highly dangerous explosive charges, and somewhere my chick was getting into trouble, probably with Bettina. I only could hope that his normally agile brain wouldn't short circuit until he figured out her fish problem. I would like to have Davies owe me a favor or two and while disposing of Bettina via large carnivorous lizard would be easy enough, I would rather her departure from Hojo's affections earn me more than a chocobo's heart broken wailing.

"Vincent, we're heading back. Can you look after things here?" Keno called as they headed down into the village. "We're going to look for those maps. It's important."

I nodded, yawning slightly. "Sure. No problem."

I watched them stride off then turned to the head digger. "Hey, if I give you double your usual pay, do you think you could find that harp thing?"

He eyed me over, weighing the thought of double pay for less work, against how much more money he'd be able to suck out of me. "No promises."

"Triple."

It was amazing how fast that harp appeared. The previously inept explosive experts set the charges quickly and efficiently and, low and behold, they located the harp. The diggers had it in my hands less than an hour after my money hit the head diggers palm. They all celebrated their financial windfall by heading toward the bar. I headed toward the store.

My favorite clerk was on duty again and he sighed tragically at me. "I'd get lost if I were you. Davies is putting everyone to work looking for some map or something."

"Oh…umm… where's a good place to lay low?" I leaned a hip against the counter. "I can't go home right now."

"Yeah, I heard." The clerk gave me a leeringly sympathetic look. "Dumped for Bettina, huh? Want to come over to my place and talk it over."

News travels fast. I made a note of that.

I gave him a sad look. "I don't think so…I'm just not in the mood."

"Yeah. I had a girl dump me for another guy once. It sucked." He reached out and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Come on over to my place. Forget about…"

"Uhmmm. Mr. Valentine?" Dmitri stood at the door. "I hate to interrupt, but I was wondering."

I glanced over to him, "Hi."

The clerk looked at Dmitri then back to me. "You know each other?"

"He lives across the street." I glanced around as if checking for eavesdroppers. 

The boys brain plunged directly into the gutter. I could see the speculation spin through what few brain cells he possessed as Dmitri walked over. He caught the same look and glanced at me, wondering if he should play along with the clerk's assumptions or not. I considered a moment, then turned to the clerk.

I did my best to look guilty, caught, and slightly defensive. "If Hojo can…" I leaned closer though. "But don't tell. I've got to stay with Hojo till the assignment ends. If he finds out…I'm back at the inn."

Dmitri picked up on my act and looked around nervously. "It would be unfortunate for me as well. You know how gossip is."

The clerk preened. "Hey, no problem. You're my friends and friends don't sell out friends."

Every Turk cell in my body wanted to shriek in laughter over that cliché. I'd used it myself to con various morons into confiding their secrets to me. I didn't believe it when it came out of my mouth and I didn't believe it now. However, the clerk didn't need to know that. Indeed, I hoped he thought I believed him. It would be interesting to see if the chick found out and who he found out from. An attempt by someone to separate us, even with the mistaken information I'd planted, might give me a clue. I was sure the killer would prefer me away from the sample and Hojo, no matter how much of an inept slacker I was.

"Thanks." I gave him a grateful look.

I went over to Dmitri and put an arm around his waist, steering him out. "Come on, you said you wanted to talk to me."

He nodded and we headed outside. We separated instantly the moment we left the store.

"You know everyone in town will hear that by tomorrow." He stated as we walked down the street. 

I shrugged. "It will work. People probably have noticed that I've been at your house and that we talk. This gives them a solid explanation."

He sighed. "Yes, I suppose it's for the best." He wrinkled his nose. "I dislike people speculating on my personal life."

For a Turk operative, he did have a habit of coming up with odd things to say. Still, I could understand that one too. As a Turk, I found it grating to have people intrude on my life. I spent all my time prying into other people's lives and wrecking them. I knew the damage it could cause.

"What did you want to see me about?" I glanced around, watching a few diggers stagger up the street singing drunkenly.

"The missing maps." He sidestepped as the diggers swayed past. "I have copies which you might be interested in. They show not just the pits, but interestingly enough, some of the village, including Hojo's house."

I didn't like that.

He caught my frown. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't even realize until I checked my copies."

I brushed it away. "Get me the maps tomorrow. I want to see what the perp is seeing."

We parted ways in front of our houses and I went in to find my chick humming around making tea and looking very happy with himself. A small pile of fresh food was sitting on the counter and it seemed hopeful that a real meal might be in the offering. Not wanting to get in the way of real food appearing on the table, I settled on my cot and cleaned the harp. I was just contemplating my long list of suspects when Bettina arrived.

Hojo greeted her and bustled her quickly to the stove. Davies forgot to mention that Bettina was a talented cook. By the time she finished preparing our meal, I was wondering if, when Bettina's odor problem was solved, I could have her. I'd never had a toy that could cook before. Visions of lovely meals danced happily through my head as we sat down and ate. Hojo took over the conversation, leaving me to listen, eat, and make a few polite responses.

Midway through the meal, my fledgling started shifting the conversation to how his skin was drying out in the cold climate. I was amused by his not so subtle maneuvering till I noticed that Bettina had odd scratches on her arm. They were defensive marks made by raising your arms to protect yourself from a blow. I'd seen them often enough to recognize them. I wondered where she'd gotten them. They continued to prattle on about skin moisturizers, which gave me the information I needed to put Davies in my debt, so I excused myself and went to sit by the fire to give them a bit of privacy.

I had changed my plans for my chick during the night and the next morning, while he was still tucked in bed sleeping, I made a few quick adjustments to the controls of the heater then I grabbed my harp, quickly left, and went off to speak to Davies. He was thrilled to know the solution to his problem, and even happier when I pulled a few strings and got a shipment sent by next-day mail. In return, I got him to do a few favors for me. I was quite pleased by the time Keno, Tomas, Banning, and Gopher came into the store for their morning cup of coffee. I greeted them by showing them my harp.

"Great!" Keno slapped me on the back. "Let's get going."

I nodded, "Uh, I've got a question." I looked around at my friend's faces. "Has anyone ever been there before?"

"Sure. A group managed to get to the city a few years back." Banning grinned, patting his coat pocket. "We've got their map."

Not quite what I had hoped for. I'd half hoped that someone would confess that they'd been there recently. I followed them along to the entrance to the forest. We all looked at each other when we realized that someone would have to play the harp.

"What song?" Keno frowned confused. "Is there a song."

"Nope." Banning was consulting the map that had some notes in the margins. "No mention of a song."

"Anyone play?" Tomas asked hopefully.

We all shook our heads. Musical lessons had been part of my childhood, but I'd deliberately avoided them since. It had been my father's idea anyway, just one more thing that my mother had to deal with. I'd despised them. I hated the old, fat man who came to the house to teach me piano. I hated the way he'd order my mother around like a servant then leered at her when her back was turned. I hated how my father would come home and order me to show him what I had learned, only to turn and yell at my mother when I hadn't learned anything noteworthy. As far as my father was concerned, I was a prodigy and it was only my mother's laziness and stupidity that held me back. The fact that my schooling was sporadic at best because of his need to continually find me newer, better tutors and his changes of educational philosophy never entered his mind.

I was elected, since I had the harp, to be the one to play it and go first. I suppose my having a gun also provided an extra incentive for me to be the first one in. I didn't bother trying to play the thing. I just strummed random strings as I walked through the cavern opening and found myself standing in a pleasant forest.

It was one of the nicest forests I'd ever been in. I wanted to reach out and stroke the trees, settle myself down between the roots and listen to the leaves whisper secrets over my head, press my face against the trunks and breath in the scent of tranquility. This was the dangerous forest? This was the place that you would die if you didn't have a Lunar Harp? Impossible. This place was the safest place I'd ever been in.

I could hear Gopher bumbling around, yelping about getting his pack stuck in the cavern, so I stopped my aimless strumming and went over to touch a tree. If felt smooth and warm against my fingers. The wind rustled the leaves over my head, making them sound like they were laughing softly. I walked over to another and reached up tugging a branch down so I could look at the leaves. They were a gentle, springtime green. Each leaf shaped like an arrowhead with sculpted edges. I let the branch go, not wanting to harm the tree and went off to look around a bit more.

"Hey, Vincent, where are you?" Gopher yelled nervously from the entrance.

I could hear the trees growl. The atmosphere changed, becoming heavy and threatening. I didn't feel as if I was the target of their sudden anger. Gopher and the others were. I quickly started strumming the harp.

"Over here." I strode back quickly. "I was just looking around while I waited."

The others looked nervously at the trees.

"Keep together." Banning started walking forward. "And keep playing. I don't trust those trees."

From what I felt coming from the trees, the feeling was reciprocated. While the harp soothed the trees, they still radiated anger at the intrusion. The others hurried through quickly and I had to jog slightly to keep up with them. I don't know if they could feel the trees irritation, but the others certainly didn't waste any time leaving them behind.

We finally reached a place of blasted trees and grey sand, the same sand that was found under the prospector's fingernails. 

"What happened here?" Gopher looked around poking at the blasted, weathered remains of a huge tree trunk. 

Banning shrugged. "Who knows. Look, steps."

The others crowded around the worn, half buried steps that seemed to come out of the forest. I bent down to look at them, paying closer attention to my colleagues than the wonder of old rocks in dirt. Keno seemed fascinated, as did Gopher. Tomas seemed more interested in the forest behind us, eyeing it suspiciously. Banning seemed more interested in the path ahead of us, looking over his shoulder now and again.

"Wow." Gopher ran his hand over the stone step, feeling the indentation of thousands of years of feet stepping on the rock. "This is amazing. Should we take a sample back?"

"I don't feel like lugging a rock around." Banning straightened. "We can pick up a sample when we return."

Tomas nodded casting one more look at the forest before turning away from it. "Okay. Let's get going." 

I was still idly strumming the harp, and my fingers were starting to hurt a bit. "Uhhh, can I stop playing now?"

"Sure." Banning turned and headed into the blasted area. "We don't need it now."

_Really? Now, how did he know that?_ I stopped playing and followed along as everyone else trailed after Banning. _Is that information on the map? Are there other sources of information? A book? Perhaps samples from a previous expedition?_

The attack came out of what seemed to be nowhere. There was an odd shimmer, like light bending through waves and then there were monsters in front of us. They looked, oddly enough like some kind of seahorse. I grabbed Quicksilver and Keno gave a yell, grabbing for a young, fire materia in his pocket. 

The fire materia worked, the gun's ammunition bounced harmlessly off the monster's scaly skin. With only Keno's low level materia for cover, we went scampering back as a wave of what looked liked kicked up leaves blew towards us.

The forest seemed pleasant compared to the seahorses as we scampered back through its greenery. I quickly started strumming random strings on the harp, hoping the trees wouldn't mind my lack of musical talent while running for my life.

"Wasn't there anything about sea creatures?" Tomas panted as we ran through the trees. "Or monsters or something?"

"Nope." Banning skidded to a halt. "Just said sand and trees."

Gopher bolted into the cavern back to Bone Village. "Great. Wonderful map. I'm getting some materia."

We all crowded in, glancing hastily behind us. The seahorses didn't seem to want to chance the forest, staying in a silent shimmer at the tree's boundries.

I admit, I didn't do everything I could to ensure the success of the archaeological expedition. Even as the others scattered through the village, I only ambled over to the store and picked up a few potions and spells. I could, I suppose have called Veld, yelled at him for not sending me my things, and gotten a few mastered materia on the next helicopter. But I wanted to see what the others would come up with. So far, no one seemed to stand out as a suspect. Banning was a bit suspicious, but then he was also the one who had the map and had done most of the preliminary research. Gopher was an idiot, but it doesn't really take brains to kill. Keno and Tomas were likeable, but so were some of the most psychotic killers I'd met as a Turk.

I lurked around lazily, considered going back to the skull to check on my chick then shrugged it away. Dmitri was keeping an eye on him. I needed to keep an eye on the archaeologists. That sand had gotten under those fingernails somehow. I poked my head into Davies' office, looking for a few answers.

"Valentine." He looked up at me smiling. "Enjoy the city?"

"Not yet." I shrugged and stepped into the office. "We found some monsters we have to deal with."

He nodded.

"Do you know if there are any notes or maps that might tell us more about the area around the city?" I tipped my head hopefully. "I hate getting chased around by seahorse monsters."

"I don't know." He looked away thoughtfully. "I'll ask around though, see if anyone has anything."

I nodded and the others called for me to join them. I sauntered lazily back to them and we retraced our steps. With new materia we managed to get through the seahorses alright. I used most of my potions keeping myself and the others on our feet, but it wasn't too bad of a battle. The small monster that we found lurking near the stairs going down barely took a moment as Banning tossed a spell that incinerated the thing in seconds.

"Look at that." Keno stood on the top of the stairs looking down at the city spread out below us. "Amazing."

Banning shrugged. "Let's go look."

We climbed quickly down. The path we walked seemed made out of plates of some kind of shell. The houses we saw in the distance, which got clearer as we got closer, also seemed made of shell. Everything had a soft tranquil air to it. I could feel myself start relaxing even as we came down the cliff face and started into the city.

"How did they do that?" Tomas cautiously walked up to a shell, touching it. "It's not natural…is it?"

Banning shrugged. "Don't know. Get a sample and we'll analyze it later. I want to see the rest of the city."

He walked off, deeper into the city. He seemed intent on looking for something. The others stood for a moment, gawking at the houses and the shell paths. When Banning disappeared around a corner, they startled, as if waking up.

"Hey! Wait up!" Gopher chased after him with Tomas and Keno on his heels. "There might be monsters."

I stood and watched them go. Part of me was urging me to go after them, to watch to see if one of them betrayed themselves. It was my duty, I scolded myself. But I couldn't get the rest of my mind to agree. Most of me wanted to go wander off, to look at the houses in more detail, to imagine what the city once looked like when the Ancients were there to tend it, to walk through the buildings listening for voices that hadn't spoken for thousands of years.

I could see the city in my mind's eye. There would have been trees, tall and graceful, reaching up to the sky and waving in the wind. Flowers and small plants would have been scattered like colorful scarves around the buildings. People would have flowed through the streets smiling, peaceful, and serene in 

their lives, a vast contrast to Midgar's dead, dull, frightened cityscape. I wondered how long it would take to restore the city.

I was just wandering over to one of the larger gardens when my musings were interrupted.

"Vincent! Hey, come see this." Keno was waving for me in the distance. "It's a lake."

A lake? Part of me just nodded, of course there would be a lake. Earth, air, sky, water, each in perfect harmony and balance. I walked calmly over, feeling unsurprised as I noticed the large lake spanning around one of the larger shell buildings. The bridge across the lake was worn with broken railings and sprung boards, but the lake itself was tranquil and delicately beautiful.

"Hey, look!" Gopher was nearly bouncing in joy. "This has got to be an important building. Just look at how big it is."

Banning was already walking into it, "Come on. Let's go see."

We followed him in. It was pretty enough inside and surprisingly well lit. The Ancients had left the lights on and they still worked.

"Look! A goldfish." Keno yelled from up the spiral stairs he'd sprinted up following Banning. "It's some kind of moving picture or something. Come look."

Gopher and Tomas raced after him. Oddly, I wasn't curious. The building was nice enough, but I preferred the gardens and the lake. I felt claustrophobic standing in that building when the whole city was spread out around me. I followed my inclinations and returned to looking at the gardens, even the tiniest of voices scolding me for my lack of dedication and duty silenced.

It was starting to get late when the others came looking for me. I was sitting inspecting a handful of seeds I'd found nestled in a small shell like jar against one of the buildings. From the nearly microscopic size, I was guessing they were seeds from herbs or flowers and I was considering just what would happen if I sprinkled a few around the garden whose wall I was sitting one. When the others yelled a greeting, I poured them back into the shell and hid it behind the rock and shell wall.

"Time to go." Banning nodded towards where the sun was settling lower in the sky. "We'll come back another day."

I nodded, "Sounds good."

Actually, it sounded horrid. I wanted to stay, but I'd spent the entire afternoon goofing off with dirt, seeds, and daydreams. I couldn't complain when duty called in the form of my suspects. I promised myself I'd come back. Maybe I'd bring my chick. He'd like it here. He could race around knocking his beak and knees into everything and chirp with excitement at every new discovery.

We climbed back out of the city with little problems. Keno and Tomas were comparing shell samples. Gopher was chattering nonstop about the lighting system and the wonder of the giant goldfish. Banning 

was stoically enduring the chattering with only an occasional wince when Gopher would get too excited. I brought up the rear, contemplating seeds, gardens, and how dangerous letting a chocobo hatchling loose in the city would be…to the city.

I had just come to the conclusion that the city would probably survive when we came to the blasted area. Lifeless gray sand and shattered trees loomed ghostlike around as we walked through.

"There has to be some power source." Gopher was saying for the twentieth time. "I heard one of the brains down south came up with a solar power panel. It could be…"

A shimmer between us and the forest alerted me to danger.

"Seahorses!" I pushed through Keno and Tomas's sample party and brushed Gopher to the side. "Get the materia ready." I drew my gun and started to buy the others time.

"But we…" Gopher squeaked.

"Out of ether." Tomas clarified. "How are the potions and spells."

"Used most of them getting in here." Banning was riffling through his pockets as I got a few shots in at the creature's eyes.

"Run?" Gopher eyed the forest.

"We'd have to go through them." Keno inspected his copper bangle. "I can do a bit of magic, not much though."

I nodded then ducked as a wave of leaves cut through us. Gopher went down bleeding. Banning staggered back. Tomas and Keno, who were still in the back only got a few scrapes.

Keno cast a fire and Banning grabbed Gopher.

"Can we distract them?" Banning yelled as another drift of leaves came our way. 

We all jumped back, hiding behind a tree stump.

"Cast a spell and a couple of us run. They'll be too busy, hopefully, to stop us." Banning panted, popping open a potion and pouring it down Gopher's throat, causing him to choke and sit up.

"Who's last?" Tomas eyed me and Keno.

"I've got the magic. I'll go last." Keno grimaced.

I wasn't going to argue. If they'd been Turks, I would have suggested that I stay last and provide cover, then Veld could cover me as I took my turn getting out of the danger area. They were not Turks, however, and I wasn't going to let myself be put into the position of being left to the monsters while the killer scampered merrily off, relieved of a useless Turk.

"I've got the harp." I pulled it out. "The seahorses didn't go into the forest last time. I'll go first and wait in the forest. When Keno gets the rest of you out, I can cover him as he runs."

Keno looked a bit happier with a plan in place to save his ass. The others just nodded. I shuffled to the edge of the stump and peered around it. The seahorses were floating around looking in our direction. I nodded and Keno poked his head over the top and cast fire.

Gopher and I ran as the spell blasted through the clearing. The seahorses were less then impressed and instantly sent a wave of leaves racing after us.

"Shitshitshitshit." Gopher yelled diving for the ground.

I felt the leaves rip into me and I fell into the arms of the forest, pain spreading through my back. In my mind, I could hear the outrage of the trees.

_Bad._

_Corrupt ones._

_They know better._

Gopher scampered up. "Vincent!" He rolled me over and poured a potion in my mouth. "Start playing the harp Vincent."

_They should protect._

_Corrupt._

I barely got up when he shoved the harp in my hands. My head still reeled from the sudden pain and its departure. I held the harp and started plinking strings. The trees quieted, comforted.

Banning and Tomas raced through as Keno threw another fire spell. As the seahorses rounded on the two, I paused in my harping and took a few shots, keeping the monsters back. Keno ducked behind the stump and Banning and Tomas raced to our side.

I started playing the harp again as Keno slidled around the stump and peered toward us. I nodded back and he took a deep breath. He lifted his arm and the glitter of the spell surrounded him. He sent the spell and ran. I dropped the harp and started shooting as the seahorses swirled to attack. He reached the edge of the forest as the seahorses released their attack. 

_Corrupt._

_Wrong._

The trees shifted, their leaves hissing together angrily. A counter attack of soft green leaves raced to meet the sharp brown leaves of the seahorses and cut through. The seahorses flickered a moment, then were caught in the green shower and were shredded.

"Wow. No one said the trees could do that." Gopher breathed.

I picked up the harp and started plucking strings. The forest settled around me. The others took deep breaths and headed for the cavern.

"Oh, Planet." Keno was shaking. "Count me out of the expeditions in the future."

Tomas nodded. "Me too. Too much excitement."

"Getting old?" Gopher snickered.

I grinned. "What's life without a bit of excitement."

"Only with the ladies." Keno grinned.

"No excitement for you then." Banning laughed.

We made our way through town, teasing the two. As we passed the skull house, I wondered if I could get Hojo to come out with us. Gopher was heading towards the bar and Keno was at his heels. I glanced over as we passed, feeling like a teenager about to ask a girl out. Was my hair okay? Did I look good?

I was covered in mud, leaves, dirt, and blood. If it had been Veld, I would have hauled him out of the house and listened to him gripe and bitch all the way to the bar. If it had been one of my toys, I would have opened the door, leaned in, and called out an order to get themselves ready and out of the house in five minutes. But my naive, innocent fledgling? He'd handle the bar. I'd seen him in enough of them while I'd babysat him a year ago. He would probably get tipsy drunk and end up singing on top of a table. He might handle the company. He seemed to have an aversion to diggers, but he'd fit right in with the archaeologists and their semi-scientific drunken rambling. It was me that he'd object to. A blood spattered Turk. He'd run squawking around in circles if I appeared at the door and asked him to go out to a bar. He'd flop over with his legs kicking in the air if I told him I was keeping an eye on them because one seemed to be shaping up into a mass murderer.

We spent a few hours in the bar. Banning and Tomas left early to go catalog their finds and return various maps, tools, and weapons to their respective places, leaving Gopher, Keno and I to drink and rehash our day. It was mindlessly dull. I learned only that Tomas and Banning got into a fight over the meaning of some hieroglyphics that had been etched on a floor, and that Keno had a fear of spiders. Since neither was riveting, I slumped in my seat smiling a far drunker smile than I felt and listened to the chatter.

When Keno finally slumped over and started snoring on the table, I blinked slowly at him as if I was only partially able to comprehend someone sleeping in a bar. Gopher snickered, leaning back in his chair and tossing his head back while humming something off key. I got to my feet, counted the day as a bust, and turned to go home and play with my chick. By now, he'd have found out to the adjustments I'd made to the heater and I could have a bit of fun. After all, a hot room demanded less clothes. If he thought me stepping out of the shower had been interesting, he'd love what I had planned next.

I smirked happily as I walked home. Snow was falling in a soft drift around me and people were scuttling through the twilight streets, eager to be someplace warm and dry. I was half way down the street when the counter clerk from the store ran up to me.

"Ah…uh… you…" He stuttered as he caught his breath.

"What?" I arched a lazy eyebrow at him.

"There's been an accident." He finally blurted out.

My chick.

A shaft of panicky anger shot down my spine and curled into my stomach. I wasted the morning shirking my responsibilities and musing about plants, the afternoon drinking and watching Keno and Gopher get plastered, and someone had used the opportunity to hurt my silly, defenseless hatchling. I wanted to kill someone, preferably the killer. As soon as I was done, I wanted to kill myself for being such a fool. I should have been here. I should have kept better track of him. I should have watched over him myself and made Dmitri do the leg work. He could have sat in that bar and listened just as well as I could. I should have called Veld and had him send a couple more Turks up here to provide security. I should have…

"Dmitri's hurt bad." The clerk looked up the street. "He's at his house. They just took him there."

Dmitri? I took a deep breath feeling a traitorous rush of relief. It hadn't been my chick.

"When? When did this happen?" I glanced around the snowy street.

"Just a few minutes ago. He was sitting in front of his house examining one of the findings when one of the diggers set off a charge. It knocked down a section of the cliff face and some of the rubble hit him. The doctor…"

I looked up at the cliff that hung over the village. It wasn't much, about 15 meters tall, but it was composed of large rocks and bone fragments from the creatures whose skulls everyone lived in. I tried to calculate the amount of force it would take to propel one of those rocks, or a lot of those rocks down to the area of Dmitri's house. It would have had to be a hell of a blast. To make even a single rock travel that distance from such a low cliff face, it would have had to leave a huge blast crater. And I didn't see one.

I jogged quickly up the street looking at Dmitri's house. The snow was still falling but it might still retain some evidence. It was getting dark, but a table with some bone and rock samples could still be clearly seen sitting next to the door. An overturned chair lay next to it with a couple of large, muddy rocks scattered around. Interestingly, there were no rocks, mud sprays, or detritus anywhere else. If it had been the fallout from an explosion, it had only fallen on Dmitri.

"Damn." By now the killer would have put as much distance as possible between himself and this area and tomorrow all the evidence would be old. "Damn."

I scouted the area in front of the house, but the snow was muddled with footprints, probably from the people to respond to Dmitri's attack. I quickly looked across the street and saw my chick sitting at the table reading. At least I didn't have to worry about him. I checked up and down the street, but only saw a couple of people hurrying into their houses out of the snow. 

I looked at the rocks, trying to figure out how they had gotten there. It wasn't the most brilliant attack I had seen, but considering that Dmitri was down and the attacker was still on the loose, I couldn't fault it too much. The best vantage for rock dumping would have been from above. I jogged around the house peering at the snow covered ground, hoping the failing light would be enough to spot footprints.

I didn't see anything, but something in the corner of my vision caught my attention. Something moved against the darkening sky. I moved to a better angle, looking up at Dmitri's roof. Someone was laying flat on the roof. I couldn't see them clearly, but they seemed to have their ear pressed down on the skull, as if listening to what was happening below.

I edged around, trying to keep silent while looking for the ladder or something else the shadow person might used to climb up there. I wanted to be there when they came down. I had just rounded towards the back of the skull when the clerk had to decide to be helpful.

"Hey, Vincent! Vincent! Dmitri's waking up!" He yelled down the alley.

The shadow jerked. I cursed as the figure slid off the skull. I ran around to that side, drawing my gun, and heard steps running across the street…toward Hojo. I raced after, glancing toward where my chick was still sitting placidly reading his book. I caught a glimpse of the shadow dart into the excavation field. I ran faster but skidded to a halt as a pit loomed up out of the gloom.

There were more running steps to the right and I headed as quickly as I dared toward them. I leapt over small trenches, stumbled over slender strings that bracketed future dig sites, sloshed into stagnant puddles of freezing slush, and slipped in the mud. The only satisfaction I had was when the shadow tripped and fell with a small, half muffled cry of pain.

A man. The shadow had a man's voice.

I jogged as quickly as I could to the spot, but the shadow had disappeared. I stopped and listened. Silence pressed down around me. Nothing moved. I was in a field of hiding spots and I didn't have a flashlight, not that it would have done anything but make me an easier target. I scouted around, snarling softly to myself, and hoping that the shadow didn't have any weapons. 

I gave up after searching for a few more minutes. I could hear Veld's voice taunting me about painting a target on my chest and yelling free target practice. I made a note of the place the shadow fell and returned to Dmitri's house. I'd look over the area tomorrow and hopefully find something useful. With any luck the mud would freeze and I'd get a foot print or maybe even a hand print.

As I made my way back, I paused a moment to look in at Hojo. He was now puttering around, doing his bedtime routine. I watched him go into the bathroom, where I knew he brushed his teeth and combed 

his hair then he came back out and got a glass of water. He looked around a moment and turned off the lights. I knew he'd go over to his bed and change into an old tee shirt and a baggy pair of flannel shorts. He'd then burry himself under his blankets and pillows…or maybe not. I wondered just how hot it was in there now, considering the small modifications I'd done to the heater. I grinned to myself, considering the fun I'd have with that heater.

When I was certain my hatchling was tucked away for the night, I went into Dmitri's house. The doctor was still there. He was a young man, probably from the south since he looked fresh, unweathered, and moderately well groomed. He was sitting next to Dmitri's bed.

"How is he?" I walked softly over.

The doctor looked up, looking me over carefully. "You're Vincent." He stared a moment more. "I heard you were… dating."

I shrugged. So much for not ratting out your buddies. "Is he going to be okay?"

He nodded. "Yes, he took a bad blow to the head, but nothing a few potions couldn't fix. But he needs someone to keep an eye on him till he wakes up."

"I'll stay." I looked around for a chair, but the doctor stood up.

"Good. I've got to get back." He stepped around the tables and headed for the door. "Call me if anything happens. I'll come by in the morning to check."

He left and I took his seat and positioned it so I could keep an eye on Dmitri and Hojo's front door. After spending a few vigils at the side of various people, I can say one thing. They are dull. Usually when called to a hospital because Veld, or another friend got themselves hurt, I'd bring something to keep me busy: a book, a game, a magazine, once I brought a "Learn it Yourself" tape on speaking Wutaian. I didn't learn anything useful, but it kept me busy. Now I had nothing, so I spent my time looking around Dmitri's home (bones, rocks, bones, dirt, bones, soil samples, more bones), watching the house across the street (dark, untouched, dull) and fantasizing about what I was going to do to my chick once I got his clothes off him.

It was very early in the morning when I noticed lights flickering across the street. A soft dance of flames ghosted against the windows. I hadn't seen anyone go in, but I wanted to be sure. I checked Dmitri, who was still unconscious and then went over to investigate. Who knew, the silly hatchling might have set the skull on fire during a midnight need to feed his tea addiction.

When I opened the door, I noticed that the house felt like a freezer. He was sitting in a bundle of blankets next to the fire.

"Something wrong?" I asked as I brushed off some of the snow that had dusted down onto my shoulders. 

The heater was still there, but it was giving no heat. The silly chick had turned it off and probably forgot to start a fire to keep the place warm. I was half surprised though that his pile of pillows and blankets hadn't kept him warm.

"The heater's malfunctioning." He tried glaring at it, but this early in the morning the glare came out as a pout.

"Hmmm." I looked around the room, noting the sample was still sitting on its doily. "That's a problem."

Actually, it wasn't. It just meant that I had to switch plans. The comment from my fellow guest at the inn came to mind. Sharing body heat, and if I was going to share that, I could easily get him to share a few other things. I suppressed my grin and looked as blankly efficient as possible.

"I'll get another tomorrow." He hunkered down in his blankets, looking like a chocobo fluffing its feathers out. 

"Okay." I stepped back. I'd play with my chick after Dmitri woke up. "I'll be over at Dmitri's."

The pout became more definite. "Fine, fine." He went towards his bed looking sulky. "Take the sample. No point letting it freeze."

I wasn't going to argue. If I had the sample, I would have one less thing to worry over. I scooped it off the table and left him to grumble wordlessly to himself.

Poor grumpy chick.

I went back to Dmitri's, put the sample on a far table, and settled myself back in my chair. I'd have to talk to Davies in the morning about the heater. I couldn't very well convince my chick to share body heat if his heater got repaired. Maybe after I had a few nights of playing with my chick, the heater would suddenly start working again. Or maybe I could get Davies to lock the controls permanently into high. I still liked some of the ideas that I'd made for having a too hot house. I'd looked forward to some of those.

I also had to make arrangements for my chick to have babysitters for the afternoon. With Dmitri down and me having to investigate the attack, I'd need some way to make sure the killer or attacker didn't decided to relocate another scientist to the lifestream.

The next morning, Davies arrived at Dmitri's before the sun even rose. I was still sitting watching my operative and my fledgling and feeling stiff and groggy. The large cup of coffee that Davies brought with him and set down next to me made me think that Bone Village was the other name for the Promised Land of legends. I eagerly grabbed it and started guzzling it down, not caring if it was spiked with poison, hallucinogenics, or cancer causing sweeteners. Happily it wasn't.

"How's he doing?" Davies looked over Dmitri's still form.

"Still sleeping." I had to pull myself away from the wonder of caffeine to answer. "But he's getting restless."

Davies nodded. "Okay, I'll send Cooper by with some food later. Bettina's making some casserole or something."

"Cooper?" I wobbled tiredly to my feet. My back creaked in protest.

"The kid, at the counter." Davies shrugged. "I'll send him by with lunch."

"Oh." Some Turk I was, I hadn't even gotten the kid's name. "Thanks."

"Not a problem." Davies turned to go.

"Wait. Can you arrange something for me?" I took a fortifying gulp of coffee and set it down on a table. "When Hojo comes in, don't let him have a new heater. If he tries to get his fixed, make sure it's fixed to only put out maximum heat."

Davies arched an eyebrow, a smile lurking around the corners of his mouth. "Can I ask why?"

I shrugged. "Prank war.

He grinned. "Whatever gets you through the winter."

He waved as he left and I settled back in my chair to drink my coffee. A few hours after dawn, the doctor came back and brought with him his nurse, a shriveled, desiccated person of undeterminable gender, who looked like he, she, or it had once scolded those young, upstart Ancients about not respecting their elders. While they examined Dmitri, I went down to the store to arrange my chick's day.

The head digger, who was standing in line in front of me for the holy substance of coffee was happy to have another set of hands. It only cost me a promise to take him to the Ancient's city. Tomas and Banning, arriving in line behind me, welcomed him to our party with a few pleased comments and they all started chattering archaeological babble.

I tuned out. For all outward appearances, I was still paying attention, but my mind was racing. Banning was limping. I'd spotted it when he came in. It wasn't a heavy limp, but it was enough for me to notice. I could still clearly hear the shadow from last night falling and gasping in pain. There was a good possibility that whoever the shadow was, they'd hurt themselves. Add to that, Banning had left the bar early. Gopher and Keno had stayed, but he'd left with Tomas early. He'd have had more than enough time to gather rocks, climb onto Dmitri's roof and wait till a detonation occurred to drop them on Dmitri's head. 

Still, the line of thought was nothing more than suppositions. It had snowed yesterday and I'd guess that more than a few people slipped in the icy streets. Actually, considering the excitement of yesterday, it would be startling if one or more of them didn't show some scrapes, bruises, or sprains. Still, it was something to think about. 

Cooper finally bestowed the blessing of coffee on me and I ambled lazily over to wait for Banning and Tomas. Gopher dragged himself in looking rumpled and miserable, but there was no sign of Keno. I pondered whether Keno's absence was a good thing or not, then shrugged it away. He was low on my suspect list and with Banning's continued rise to the number one position, I was willing to let him go.

"Hey, Vincent! You up to another try today?" Gopher joined up with Tomas, Banning and the head digger, who had the unfortunate luck of being named Horance, came up with him. 

Banning pulled a fire materia out of his pocket. "I traded a promising dig site for a third level fire materia." He spun the orb in his fingers. "This should take care of those monsters."

I nodded and sipped my coffee. "Sounds good, but I have to stay with Dmitri. He got hurt last night."

"I heard about that." Tomas shook his head. "Bad luck."

Gopher shifted a bit, looking nervous. "It's odd. I went by this morning and it sure didn't look like rubble from an explosion."

I shrugged, yawning and radiating ineptitude. "There was some kid up on Dmitri's roof. It was probably just a prank that went bad. I chased him off."

Banning shook his head. "Kids…"

"Betcha it was one of the prospector's brats." Tomas growled. "We've had nothing but trouble since they came up here."

Banning sipped his coffee. "Come on Vincent. I'm sure we can get Bettina to watch Dmitri. We could use your skills."

The paranoid part of me wondered why he wanted me along so bad. Still, myprime suspect was going to be in the Ancient's city, Hojo was going to be entertained by the diggers all day, and while sitting Dmitri would solidify the fiction of our romance, watching him sleep all day wouldn't get me any closer to finding who attacked him.

"Well…" I paused, looking like I was trying to think and having a hard time of it. "Okay…sure."

"Great." Tomas slapped me companionably on the back. "See you in a half hour at the cavern."

Banning grinned. "Remember the harp."

Twenty five minutes later, Bettina was puttering around Dmitri's kitchen, my fledgling, informed that he couldn't get a new heater, was off playing in the mud, the sample was tucked safely away in Davies' safe, and I was leaning against a wall near the entrance to the forest radiating laziness, carelessness, and that particular stupidity that only dedicated slackers have. As Banning and Gopher approached, I could see the deep sigh they took as if straining for patience. 

Horance and Tomas appeared a few minutes later and we went off to the city. It was the dullest day I'd endured in months, topping even a seemingly endless day of listening to President Shinra monotonously practice his speech for the annual budget review luncheon. The monsters were busy feeding on some kind of plant and barely took note of our passing. There was another monster by the path going down, but Banning fried it in seconds. I refused to get pulled back into my gardening fugue and trailed after Banning, who spent the day rooting around looking at what seemed to be pottery shards.

By the time we trudged back to the village that evening, I was ready to do anything…anything for a bit of entertainment. And wasn't it fortunate that I had a chick waiting at home to keep me busy. I checked in with Dmitri, and found out from Bettina he'd regained consciousness that afternoon. He had fallen asleep again, so she was still watching over him. 

"Thanks." I peered blearily around, not entirely pretending to be exhausted. "Can you stay with him?"

"Sure." She gave me a small pat on the back. "You look tired. Go home and rest."

I made a brief show of concern about Dmitri, bending over him and touching his hair then I happily tumbled across the street and opened the door. A blast of warm air struck me. The heater was working wonderfully. My chick was already sprawled, half naked in bed, and the whole dull day suddenly looked a lot more interesting. 

"Hot in here." I frowned, looking at the heater as if it was a huge and unpleasant surprise to me that it was malfunctioning.

Hojo mumbled something into one of his pillows as I went over to give the heater an outraged look. I shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it over a chair. I turned toward my bed, hiding my smirk. This was going to be fun.

Back in the days when I had just joined the Turks, Veld and I had been assigned one of those lovely assignments that only rookies get. The kind that the experienced Turks would suddenly absent themselves from the area or hastily acquire a mountain of unfinished, highly important paperwork they had to get finished. As the new kids, Veld and I had been hauled in, smirked at, and told of our unbelievable luck. We were assigned to look into a male prostitution ring that was branching out into blackmailing Shinra executives.

The ring worked out of a gay club in one of Junon's less upstanding neighborhoods. Veld and I had to get in, work for the ring, pick out the ones responsible, and end the operation. The proprietors drooled as Veld and I walked into the club. After the crack whores and street corner boys, the two of us -pretending to be fresh from the hinterlands of Kalm looking for "the fast life"- must have looked damn good. We were hired with no experience and the promise that we'd be trained. Veld got training as a waiter and had to wear a tiny speedo and a bow tie while delivering drinks and being groped by drunks. I got trained as a dancer and spent my time writhing around on the stage. By the end of the first week, I'd learned the moves and had even acquired a following. The club owners were thrilled, but only until Veld overheard them planning on videotaping an executive and putting pressure on him to fund a new club. 

They all disappeared that night into Junon's harbor and Veld and I made a small pact about never speaking of that assignment. I sometimes wonder if Veld really overheard that conversation or if he chose the most likely suspects before we had to take our performance to private rooms.

While I hadn't made much use of that knowledge, I made use of it now and, peeking over my shoulder to make sure my chick was paying attention, put on a show. The shirt is always a good start. I unbuttoned it slowly, letting my chick imagine his fingers playing with the buttons. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as his eyes fastened themselves to my hands, then, as I pulled the shirt over my head, widened. My mentor had told me over and over that getting the audience's attention was the easy part, few people could easily ignore a naked person. The trick he said was to get them to get involved, to put their imaginations to use for you. My chick seemed to be paying attention. He even looked a bit disappointed that I had an undershirt on, but when I slowly pulled that off, he looked far more pleased.

I took a brief pause, letting him look at me. This was a technique that had always worked well at the club. A momentary pause, combing my fingers through my hair and letting my audience imagine what it would be like to do that, perhaps he'd come up with a few quick fantasies about how it would feel to slide his fingers through, how silky it would feel as I arched and purred under him, naked and wanting. 

I sat down and took off my shoes and socks. Letting those images wander around in my hatchling's head, then deliberately made a feline stretch and a yawn, letting him consider what it would be like to be in my bed as I undressed to sleep and maybe, perhaps, do other things. His breath hitched softly and his eyes got rounder.

He was such a smart chick. I'd have to reward him later.

I stood up and started on the pants. The belt came first, sliding sinuously between my fingers, letting him notice the way I stroked over the soft surface, letting him consider what it would be like to have my fingers stroke other things. I gave my hips a small rotation, as if working out a kink from my back and then looked directly at him as I started unbuttoning my pants. He froze, his eyes wide, wanting, and startled, but he wasn't moving, pretending to be asleep. I shimmied out of my pants and he made a small whimpering noise. I grinned to myself, yawned and stretched again, this time a full body stretch, letting him see what I looked like, letting his quick mind think about what it would be like to feel me stretch against him. 

He still didn't seem inclined to get up and play though, so I went over to the kitchen to do a small show of bending and posing as I searched for provocative food to entertain him with. All I could find was half of a sandwich, hardly sexy, but since it was all I had to work with, I made the best of it. I slinked my way back to my bed, spread myself out on it like a treat on a plate, and started slowly eating my sandwich, making the most of licking my lips and fingers as I pretended to read a book I'd left on my bed.

Still, he didn't seem inclined to come over and play, so after I finished my dinner. I got up and took off my last piece of clothing. As my briefs hit the floor, he made a small sound and squirmed a bit, but then 

froze, his eyes shutting quickly, as if blocking my image out. I frowned. That was not the reaction I'd wanted.

"Hojo?" I made my voice soft and soothing. "Are you awake?"

He pretended to be asleep. Stubborn chick. Perhaps I went too fast? I puzzled it over as I got into my nightclothes and went to bed. Perhaps I needed to be a bit more direct, or perhaps I let his mind squawk and bump into itself too much. He was intelligent, perhaps too much so. The Planet only knew what nonsense wandered around in his head. As the sleep I missed the previous night finally demanded that accounts be settled, I promised myself I'd look into this in the morning.

His groan of agony as he hobbled out of bed gave me the first clue about the problems of last night. His pale face, avoidance of bright light, and cringe of pain as he dropped one of his shoes with a loud thump told me the rest. He'd been drunk. Stupid chick. I'd have to start discouraging that habit if it was going to interfere with playtime.

I lazed around a bit, pretending to sleep, as he hurried out of the house. I could guess where he was going, Bettina's. I got dressed as I watched him toddle unsteadily down the street and was out of the house and on his heels before he rounded the corner. As expected, he went straight to Bettina's. I wasn't worried. Davies would be getting the lotion soon and Bettina would be out of the way.

While he was there, I went to the store, joined the line for coffee and just as I was about to greet Tomas and Keno, who were sleepily poking at some frozen pastries when I saw the perfect thing. My chick would enjoy those. I snatched them out of the freezer case and stood back in line to pay for them. They were lovely. Perfect. Amazing. My chick's eyes would pop out of his head.

I gleefully pattered back down the street and put my find in the freezer to play with later. I paused to check on Dmitri, who was now up and back to cataloging small bits of the past. He gave me a small wave and I left him to his work. I wanted to go check in with the coffee society and perhaps get a bit more gossip about Banning before Hojo got done with breakfast. 

I was nearly at the store when Hojo scampered past and darted out of town. Breakfast must have been brief and I hadn't had time to arrange for a group of babysitters for him. Worried, I followed along keeping him in sight. He of course decided that now, with people getting killed, attacked, and fed to vlakorados, was the time to go off to visit his relatives, the Tewits. They had to be the stupidest creature on the Planet, surpassing even the brain dead Hedgehog Pie that lurked around down in the slums. He spent most of the morning perched on a rock watching those idiotic birds coo at each other and defecate on the rocks. I failed to see the attraction, but he seemed happy enough. He only called it a day when two vlakorados came loping over the horizon.

He headed home and I raced through the excavation pits and a few side streets to get to the skull first. I tossed off my shoes, jacket, shirt and tee-shirt, pulled one of my finds out of the freezer, grabbed my book, and flung myself in a chair, looking like I'd spent the morning doing nothing but lazing around reading. The sweat I'd acquired from my sprint home could easily be attributed to the warmth of the 

skull and any heavy breathing would only add to the overall effect. I smirked as I heard his footsteps approach the door and went to work.

My find, a long slender popsicle, often called a Rocket Pop, was enough of a phallic symbol that my chick's brilliant mind would easily see the connotations and with a bit of skill, wrought of many years of playing with my toys, I could get him to imagine the rest.

My chick nearly hit the floor when he walked in. He stood gawping as I gave my popsicle one of the best blow jobs I'd done for months. I pretended to be innocently involved in my book, as if giving head to long slender objects was an ingrained talent as he struggled to remember to breathe.

I decided to push just a bit more. I looked up at him slowly, as if I was turning to a lover after a bout of mind melting sex. "Would you like one?"

He nearly turned into a puddle of hormones and feathers, but he still managed to squeak, "No, thank you."

I considered pressing it a bit more, but I had all afternoon, so I decided to let it play out a bit longer. He darted behind his curtain and I made sure my licking and slurping was loud enough for him to hear. The curtain trembled. 

I hummed a bit as I thought of how to proceed from here. I could make a few more suggestive remarks, or I could ditch the popsicle, go over, and wiggle him out of those clothes. While it was fun to watch my hatchling as I tormented him, I decided to go for the direct approach. I was just getting up to go convince him to give over his wardrobe when there was a knock at the door. Frowning, scooping Quicksilver up and tucking it into the back of my waistband, I answered the door.

"I'm so sorry to disturb you." Dmitri nearly whispered as I opened the door. He looked pale, but intense "I just thought you'd like to know that…"

I sighed seeing my fun destroyed for another day. "Wait, I'll be over in just a moment."

I got dressed, looking at where my fledgling was still quivering behind his curtain, then went over to see Dmitri. He was sitting looking stressed.

"I don't suppose you know who dropped those rocks on you?" I settled into a chair.

"No." He rubbed his head frowning. "I did see something a few minutes ago that I thought you'd be interested in."

I nodded, waiting.

"I was checking in with the diggers to see what they had for me when I noticed someone. He was talking to Banning. While he was dressed like a prospector, I noticed that his hands were too… neat." Dmitri made a small fussy gesture with the brush he was using to clean off a fosil. "Diggers have calloused, often dirty hands. This man's hands were manicured, but he was dressed as a prospector."

"Interesting." My main suspect was talking to some who was disguising themselves. Very interesting.

"Banning and the man left. They headed south east out of town." He sighed. "I didn't think I could keep up with them so I came to you."

I nodded, heading out the door. "Were they on foot?"

"Yes. They left about," he checked his watch, "seven minutes ago. There's not much out there, but you might try some of the of the old shacks just in the forest line by the foothills."

I hurried out heading through the excavation fields hoping to save a bit of time. A few of my friends called out a few greetings, which I waved in acknowledgement of and kept going. It was trickier, with more unstable footing, large holes, and half sober diggers popping up like ghosts on a carnival ride, but I made good time and got to the south east side of town in time to see two figures disappearing over a rise.

"Hey, Vincent! Whatcha doing?" Gopher yelled, causing me to hesitate.

"Hojo wants some…" I thought fast. How about those stupid birds. "Tewit feathers."

Gopher laughed and yelled something else but I was off, racing after the now vanished figures. I did keep an eye open for roving vlakoradoses, but, from the squawks and flurries of feathers from the area Hojo had visited that morning, I could guess they were all busy having poultry for lunch. I got to the top of the rise and slithered behind a bush to keep from being seen from below.

Banning and his companion were approaching the far tree line. Dmitri had been right about them heading there. As soon as they disappeared, I jogged quickly down the hill, dodging from scrub pine to thorn bush. When I was close enough to the tree line, I quickly dodged in and made my way to where the two had disappeared.

They weren't hard to find. They were in an old, nearly collapsed shed that looked like someone a century ago used to house their livestock in. The idiots hadn't left a window or door open and didn't even post a sentry to warn them of lurking Turks. I do love it when people make my job easy.

They were in the middle of an argument when I sidled up to peek through a large space between two graying boards that probably had once been the siding of the building. It was a bit difficult to tell since that section also had pieces of the once roof collapsed on top of it.

"…have it for us by now." The not-prospector growled. He was short, slender, and definitely Wutaian. 

Banning shrugged. "I have a Turk and a Shinra scientist to deal with. It isn't so simple."

"Kill the Turk. Kill the scientist." The Wutaian shrugged. "It is simple."

Banning shook his head. "It would be easier to find more of the sample before anyone else. I did get you the maps."

"We're paying you to do it." The man flicked the argument away with a slender hand that probably never touched a shovel before. "Also, if the scientist has the sample, he must die. No one must get a good look at it. We made that clear."

"I need to get rid of the Turk first, or at least distract him." Banning ran an aggravated hand through his hair. 

"Just kill him." The not-prospector shrugged.

Banning shook his head. "Kill one Turk and you have ten more poking around looking for the reason their friend's dead."

The other made a small hmph but didn't argue. I would have felt bad if he had. Veld and I had spent months teaching Wutaian operatives that killing a Turk meant an all out manhunt for the killer. I would have to tell Veld that our efforts were paying off.

"I wounded the Turk's lover. It did distract him for a bit, but the man recovered too quickly." Banning frowned. 

"Just kill the scientist." The Wutaian gave a snarling grin. "Let the Turk go home as a failure."

Not likely. Not with these two as my opponents. I drew my gun and considered the fastest way to dispose of my two plotters. While the crack in the siding was excellent for eavesdropping, it would be a bit too small to accurately shoot a moving target, and as soon as I shot the first, the second would definitely move. However, if I moved to a better spot, they might spot me and return fire. I debated my options as the two continued wrangling about how to kill me and my chick, and I finally decided on shooting the Wutaian and hunting Banning down. 

As predicted, Banning jumped out of easy range the instant the Wutaian fell. He did surprise me by bolting quickly out of the cabin and into the trees. Damn. I hate pursuing people through the great outdoors. Give me city streets, back alleys, buildings, drug dealers, pimps, thugs, gang bangers, and crime czars. Chasing some ass through trees, bushes, poison oak, ticks, mud, and rotting, decaying leaves is completely horrific. Not to mention dangerous since a wooded landscape offered them plenty of places to set up a quick ambush. Add to that it was getting dark and it was beginning to rain, soaking me in icy water. My adoration of the outdoors experience was complete. My only consolation, as I raced through the drippy, sylvan glens was that Banning was headed for the village…

And my chick… My clueless, defenseless chick.

I hurried faster. Banning might have decided to take out my fledgling to get the sample and head out of town. He didn't know that the sample was still sitting in Davies' safe, so all he would get was a dead hatchling and me hunting him down and sending him straight to hell in the most painful way I could think of. As I ran, I considered a few possibilities if he did harm my chick. I'd have to get Veld to send me a few things, but it would be worth the wait.

I bolted out of the woods, skidded down what seemed to be a backbone of some prehistoric monster, and landed on the eastern edge of town. I dodged through the streets, brushing by people, not bothering to even keep up a pretense of being a lazy slacker. I bolted down an alley, raced up the street leading to our skull and slammed into the house looking for my hatchling. It was now late and he was gone.

I ran back outside and looked around then barged into Dmitri's. He was sound asleep, slumped over his worktable. I wanted to scream at him about losing sight of Hojo, but I had no time. I ran for the next place I could think of, Bettina's.

I was panting as I pounded on her door. Davies answered it looking peeved.

"Hojo." I gasped, trying to catch my breath after my long sprint. "Banning's trying to kill him. Where is he?"

"Banning?" Davies stepped through the door and closed it behind him. "Are you sure? I've known Banning for years, he wouldn't…

"I overheard him and another man. Where is Hojo?" 

"I saw him a couple of hours ago looking for the diggers." Davies pointed out to the excavations. "I doubt they're still there, but…"

"Thanks."

I raced off to check the pits and the tents around them. It wasn't unheard of for the diggers to light arc lights and work late, but the fields were empty. The freezing rain that had now turned into sleet had driven everyone inside.

I spun around and headed for the store. Cooper was still lolling around behind the counter offering coffee to half frozen archaeologists and diggers. I scanned quickly around, but couldn't find either my fledgling or Banning. They all seemed to be in a great mood. Keno and Tomas were eating some kind of meal out of frozen food cartons and Gopher was sprawled next to them gulping down coffee.

"Find the birds? Or did you get your ass chewed by the lizards?" Keno grinned as I hurried over.

"Neither. Has anyone seen Hojo?" I gestured toward the diggers. "Davies said he was with the diggers."

Tomas shrugged, "Try the bar."

I nodded and dashed away. It was now almost midnight and Banning could have easily found Hojo and put a bullet through him. And while the house had looked untouched when I got there, it didn't mean that Banning hadn't been there before me. My chick was horrifyingly careless about locking doors.

I reached the bar and found it full of mud splattered laughing people. Except for the mud, it seemed just the sort of place my chick would seek on a cold, drizzly day. I waded through the masses, searching for him. I was ogled, fondled, petted, and groped thoroughly by the time I found him sitting in the back of 

the bar with a large man fondling him drunkenly and my chick smiling happily, laughing at some idiot story about how some poor schmuck got buried in dinosaur dung.

What was he? A walking hormone? When I got back to Midgar, I'd have to tell Veld I found someone who outdid me in acquiring new toys. Every time I looked, he was cuddling up to someone new. Even I didn't breakfast with one toy and then go out in the evening to cuddle with another. I considered making chocobo stew out of him for a few moments, then realized that once again he was completely plastered, probably even worse than the night before. I shoved my way over to him and grabbed the back of his jacket.

"You. Go home." I snarled at him then transferred my happiness to the man who had touched my chick.

The man stumbled quickly away.

My chick smiled happily at me and offered me a beer. "Don' wanna. 'ave a drink?"

I snarled at the other diggers and dragged my happy chick home. I wasn't gentle. I had run madly through nature's loveliness, gotten rained and sleeted on, gotten sexually assaulted, and all to find he was out drinking himself blind. I thought I would find him dead in a puddle of blood. I thought I would lose him, and he was having a great time. I wanted to use him as a kickball and kick him up the street and watch him rebound off the buildings. 

I opened the door, checked the house and then pushed him inside. "Go take a cold shower."

He took a couple of stumbling steps then fell to the floor in a heap. It didn't bother him. He just grinned up at me with wide innocent eyes as he swayed back and forth.

"Planet, you're drunk." I sighed and dragged him giggling into the bathroom.

He continued snickering until I shoved him under a spray of cold water. He gave me a hurt look, just a foolish, lost chick. I dropped him and stormed back into the main room, leaving him to sober up. I paused in the kitchen to take a few deep breaths, calming myself down. It didn't work too well, but when someone knocked on the door, I was under control enough to not just start blasting holes through the door.

I did draw my gun and cautiously open the door. It was Davies.

"I heard you found him." He nodded inside. "I've got a few men looking for Banning. If we find him, we'll hold him till we get this straightened out."

I nodded. "You might want to tell the men to be armed. He's already killed a few people."

Davies frowned, "Nakami?"

"And a few prospectors." I glanced around the street.

He sighed. "I always felt Nakami falling like that was odd. I'll tell the others." He handed me back the sample. "This would be safer with you. Banning has the combination to the safe, and if this is important enough to lock up, it's important enough for him to steal."

Davies wasn't a fool. He nodded goodbye and left. I looked across the street and found Dmitri walking over. The sleet had turned into a heavy snow and he was covered in it as he made his way slowly over to me, averting his eyes.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean…" He looked horrified and frightened.

I knew head wounds. I'd had my fair share, and leaving him to watch over Hojo had been careless of me. Sudden unplanned for naps were to be expected and leaving Hojo in the care of someone who had just received a blow hard enough to knock them out for nearly twenty four hours was careless of me. I should have prepared better. Still, I couldn't let it entirely slide.

"We'll talk about it in the morning." I looked back over my shoulder as I heard Hojo fumbling around trying to open the bathroom door. 

He slumped and scuttled back to his house, probably thinking I was going to shoot him. Jin had done things like that. One screw up on an important case and you were gone, whether it was really your fault or not. While I still practiced it to some extent to cull out the less qualified (mainly Jin's lingering friends), I didn't waste good operatives and Dmitri was very good at his job, not to mention getting a replacement would be difficult. Few Turks would willingly live up in this ice flow.

I went back in, set the sample on the table, back on its doily, then went over to the kitchen and mixed together a hangover remedy that was one of the dearly held secrets of the Turks. It tasted terrible, but if you were drunk enough to need it, you were beyond being able to criticize it. I set it on the counter and went over to the fire, still listening to Hojo fumbling with the doorknob, and picked up my book. I still needed to calm down. I needed to keep focused in case Banning showed up. I needed to get the image of my chick laying dead on the floor out of my head. I needed to keep from turning him over my knee and spanking him. No sexual quirk intend.

He finally stumbled out of the bath and stood blinking around, wavering on his feet.

"What were you thinking?" I growled.

He wobbled and peered around. He was so drunk he had trouble focusing his eyes. I half expected him to fall to the floor in a pile of knees, elbows, confused warks, and feathers. Instead his eyes grew wide and he bolted back to the bathroom. The following sounds of retching were hardly inspiring. After a few minutes of me smirking over his misery, he staggered out of the bathroom looking green.

I pointed at the counter and the drink I'd left there. "Drink that and go to bed."

He stumbled over to the kitchen fumbling around till he located the glass, and I returned to my reading, still trying to get my nerves to stop jangling and sending extra adrenalin to the rest of my body. After he 

drank the stuff he stumbled about for a few minutes, trying to locate his bed then collapsed onto it in a pile of sodden clothes. I vindictively let him stay like that, feeling that if I tried to undress him, I'd probably end up trying to knock sense into his thick head by pounding it on the wall.

Why did I want him so badly? Right then it was a mystery.

I was up early the next morning. Rousted Dmitri out of bed to watch Hojo and made sure he wouldn't take any sudden naps, then went off to the store. The coffee line was somewhat subdued as I joined its ranks, hoping for news of Banning. What I found out wasn't encouraging. Cooper, our coffee provider, wasn't at his usual spot, serving cheap coffee to desperate men. Instead a girl I'd only seen in passing on the street was doing the honors.

Keno, Tomas, and Gopher were all huddled together talking intensely. The other people, once they had their caffeine fix, were also huddling into groups. Everyone seemed tense, a few looked shocked, and many looked frightened.

"What happened?" I slipped up to stand between Gopher and Keno.

They all looked at me then glanced around worriedly.

"Vincent, uhhh… can you teach me how to shoot?" Keno's eyes were darting around.

"Me, too." Gopher seemed to be trying to hide behind me.

Tomas just bit his lip.

"Why?" Whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"Banning shot Cooper last night." Tomas whispered. "Tried to break in the safe and Cooper must have heard him. Poor kid."

I say again. Davies was no fool. I wondered if he'd like a position as a Turk operative. He was certainly doing better than I was at the moment. Perhaps my slacker act was sinking in deeper than I thought. I was running around a half step behind while Davies was thinking a step ahead.

Gopher jumped as a couple of diggers came in and dropped their gear by the door with a loud crash. "I can't believe I trusted him. I was alone with him yesterday! He could have killed me."

I nodded and looked around. "Has anyone seen him?"

Tomas shook his head. "Davies has a few men out looking, but no one's heard anything. He just said to go about our lives like usual, that things were under control."

That is political speak for we are in deep shit and don't have a shovel, so think happy thoughts and maybe the fairies will solve our problems. Unhappily, I didn't believe in fairies, but I did have a shovel. I slipped away from the others as they all started talking about locks, security systems, and buying guns for protection. Banning was in his office trying to pretend that everything was fine, that there wasn't a 

fresh blood stain in his doorway, and that one of his archaeologists wasn't the cause of the panic out in the main store.

"Morning, Vincent." He greeted me, looking tired. "You heard about Cooper?"

I nodded and looked carefully around. While it had been picked up, there were still signs of the office being riffled. Papers that were usually neatly in holders were piled up in stacks. Some of the personal items that Davies had perched on shelves and file cabinets were gone. Books that had once sat pristinely on shelves were now piled next to the shelves.

"You might want to hang around a moment." Davies nodded to a chair as he finished fixing the file he'd been working on. "A couple of the boys think they saw Banning this morning here in town. I had them search the area and they'll be back in a couple of minutes."

I sat down and sipped my coffee. "Are you sure Banning did this?" I motioned to the bloodstain and the out of place items.

He nodded. "Yes, I saw him. I heard the shot when I was coming back from your place." He looked tired. "I ran in here and saw Cooper on the floor and Banning coming out of my office with a gun. It was him."

I nodded. If it had been earlier in the investigation, I would have doubted more. I might have questioned whether Banning was the shooter or if he had raced in after the shooting and was holding a gun for protection. Just because something looks as if it was so, didn't always mean it was. However, I'd heard from Banning himself. A killer is a killer and killing a counter clerk, even one who had been a friend, wasn't likely to bother him much. He probably even blamed Cooper, hiding his guilt, even from himself by justifying it in his own mind.

I speak from experience.

I sat watching Davies work as I contemplated Banning untill the boys he'd sent out returned.

"The city." One huffed, apparently they had run back. "We saw him go through the entrance. He had a harp."

"When?" I was on my feet.

"Just a few minutes ago." Another waved towards the north were the entrance to the Sleeping Forest lay. "We saw him go in."

I turned to go when Davies called me back. "Here, take these."

He tossed me two mastered materia a fire and a restore. I nodded my thanks and was out the door running down the street. I only paused a moment to gather up my own harp before racing to the forest's entrance, hoping that I could catch up with him quickly. The seahorse monsters would probably slow him down. 

The trees were all hissing angrily to themselves and I wondered just how much longer the Lunar Harps would work. The trees seemed to be getting angrier and angrier every time I passed through. Since the harp didn't so much put them to sleep as to give the player a pass through their domain, I wouldn't have been surprised if the pass got revoked.

The seahorse monsters were already floating around as so much dust as I reached the blasted area. Banning must have had a mastered fire materia too. I didn't have much hope for the monster by the stairs slowing him down. 

However, he did brighten my day by shooting at me as he scampered down the path to the city. I dove behind some trees and rocks as the bullets snapped around me. I drew Quicksilver and checked my bullets. While I hadn't picked up extra ammo when I raced through the skull, I had enough on me, my main problem was that the angles were all wrong. I couldn't get a clear shot and with bullets skittering around me, I didn't feel inclined to shift my position.

Instead, I stayed still. This is a good technique, if done right. It gives the impression that you fell to the bullets while you stay tucked safely in a hidey-hole. Sometimes, if the perp was really stupid, they'd come over to check their kill, which was always a great time to return fire. 

Banning kept up the bullet rain for a few minutes then stopped. I stayed put, listening. After a few moments, I could hear him pattering away, down the path. I continued to wait a moment more, then cautiously slunk after him, waiting for a opening to take a shot.

But he was gone.

I got down to the end of the path and stood in front of the City of the Ancients wondering where he'd gotten to. I could easily see the paths and streets snaking off to the city, but no sign of Banning. I jogged into the village and started searching. He had to be there somewhere. I spent the rest of the day there, hunting through the city. By the time the sun had settled, I was tired, jumpy, and irritated. Banning had evaporated. 

I found a decent bed in what seemed to be the main building of the city and bunked down there for the night. As much as I hated to leave my chick in the care of someone who was liable to fall asleep, I hoped that fear would keep Dmitri awake. If anything did happen to my chick, I would make sure all his fears came true.

The next morning I started exploring the walkway. It had been between it and the city that Banning had disappeared. I carefully inspected the path from the bottom where Banning had been shooting at me, to the top where I had hid. I found shell casings. I found footprints heading for the village. I found disturbed rocks and broken twigs on bushes and trees heading away from the path, but I didn't find Banning. I did another search of the city then headed back towards the village. I'd spent two days banging my head against a wall and I just wanted to shoot Banning, play with my hatchling, and fall into my bed.

What I got when I opened my door was a stinking mess. Hojo reeked of mud and cheap booze. The skull, which had been clean, now had a trail of filth leading from the door to where the idiot was now snoozing on the table. The table that was notably missing the sample.

Fuck. I was so busy hunting for Banning in the city that he'd doubled back and taken the sample while the dolt I'd been assigned to guard had gone out to swill cheap liquor and throw himself at any warm, or even semi-warm body.

He woke up, looking at me blearily as I pondered if my life would be simpler if I just shot him myself.

First things first though. "Where's the sample?" I growled.

He blinked at me wallowing in stupidity. "Sample?"

"The sample…" I was now wondering if I should waste bullets on him when I'd get so much more satisfaction if I just strangled him.

I stormed out cursing him, his relatives, and chocobos everywhere. I swore from that day forth if I saw a chocobo, I'd shoot it. I was met by Dmitri who waved me over, holding up the sample jar.

"I got this from Davies." He handed it over to me.

I nodded. "Any word on Banning?"

He shook his head. "No, but Cooper is doing well."

That was nice to hear. The counter girl had been nice enough, in an I'm-closely-related-to-a-snow-wraith kind of way, but her coffee had been weak. It had also been the last thing I'd had to eat. My stomach whimpered at me for food, and I glanced behind me at the skull. Even canned food sounded good. 

Dmitri must have heard. "Come over for dinner. It's almost done. We can catch up."

I gratefully accepted and we spent the next half hour discussing how Banning could have disappeared from the path. As far as both Dmitri and I could tell, there was only one way into the city, but somehow, Banning had found a different way to leave it. Only after having finished the steak, pan gravy, and mashed potatoes that Dmitri fixed, did I go back to deal with the hatchling.

He was down on his hands and knees, miserable, hung over, and shivering, even under thick layers of blankets and clothing, but he was diligently cleaning up his mess. I wasn't entirely in the mood to forgive him, though the meal had lessened my desire to trundling him off to whatever afterlife clueless chocobos had to look forward too. I set the sample back on the table, even centering it on the doily, gave him a warning look to leave me alone and went over to sit on my bed. He gave me a wary look, but turned back to his scrubbing. When he was finished, he wobbled off to bed.

I called Veld and caught him up on my findings and my brilliance. He was appreciative and spent a few glorious minutes feeding my ego by calling me all kinds of supportive names, of which Dimwit, was probably the kindest.

"Plants! You spent an entire afternoon with a suspect and fucked around thinking about plants! What happened, did Mr. Assistant Director give you a free lobotomy? Did your brain freeze? Hell, tell you what, just stay up there with the rest of the vegetables."

There is nothing like an irate partner to lend you support in your dark moments.

"I don't know what happened." I mumbled feeling like a new rookie. "Everything was going fine till I stepped foot in that city."

"Yeah. It was the city's fault. You fucked up and the city did it. Right…" He paused and I braced myself. "You mother fucking loser, the fucking city didn't do shit! Wrench your head out of your ass and fucking kill that piece of shit!"

By the time I hung up, I felt all warm and cozy. I flopped back on my bed and listened to Hojo snuffle softly in his sleep. It had been a long day and I was more than ready for it to end. Veld had every reason to be furious. I'd been acting like a raw recruit since I got up here. I'd been playing games and ignoring business. If Jin had still been alive, I'd have been retired to a shallow grave by now and even I couldn't argue with it. If I had an operative who'd messed up as much as I had, I would have retired him too.

I spent the night dozing lightly, listening for even the tiniest of sounds to indicate that Banning was lurking nearby. By morning, I had my plans in place. There would be no more fumbling around. Banning, the main suspect, was missing and probably well hidden. This suggested that he either had a partner in his crimes, or other Wutaian operatives were still in the area. He'd most likely continue to hide until he either got ordered to move by the Wutaians, felt safe enough to move against Hojo and take the sample, fled, or found another way to achieve his goals without endangering himself too much. Because of my bumbling, he'd be next to impossible to find. My next steps were simple, I would keep Davies' boys looking for Banning. They could move about the village unnoticed. I would do my own searches and make myself easily observable, giving Banning the opportunity to watch me while the boys kept watch for him. When Banning finally moved, I would be ready this time.

I also had to keep Hojo out of trouble. His continued drinking was creating a dangerous situation. I would have to arrange for him to be out of commission for a short time. His shivering last night and misery from last night could easily be the onset of a cold. With a bit of encouragement, that cold could turn into something worse, laying him up for a few days till I dealt with Banning. There would be no need for harsh measures such as confining him to the skull, or, considering how he'd wark and flap his wings if confined, shackling him to a piece of furniture, preferably his bed.

I checked to see if he was still asleep, and once his soft snores confirmed that he was, I went over and made a few adjustments to the heater. This time I made sure it wouldn't work. Being stuck in a cold skull with no more than the erratic heat of a fireplace would take its toll. I'd even spend the day inside to make sure he didn't continue down the sloshy path to alcoholism.

He woke up as I finished my adjustments. I looked down at the heater sadly. "It's dead."

He wobbled, shivering out of bed and came to look at the heater. "Lovely."

He looked pale with dark rings under his eyes, which were bloodshot. His voice was raspy and had a definite congested sound to it. His decline into ill health was, as I suspected, already well underway.

"Catch a cold?" I didn't bother looking sympathetic. His drinking had been a major problem and I felt a bad cold was good payback for his idiocy.

He however was still in denial. "The drinking is catching up to me."

In a way it was, but I wasn't going to make that comment. Instead, I took a look around planning on my day of making sure my chick was too sick to go out and play. The weather was helping out by being heavily overcast with a good snowstorm already in progress. That would ensure that the excavations were left for the day so there would be little chance of him suddenly deciding to go out digging and drinking. I checked the firewood and found it a bit low. That would give me a good reason to leave him for a few minutes to arrange a few things with Davies. I'd also need to get some food.

I looked back down at the dead heater. "We should get another."

He sniffled, but gave me an odd smile. "Back ordered."

Confessing that I had bribed Davies into telling him that wouldn't be smart, and I had enough of acting like a dolt. I went and put on my coat. "Hmm. I'll talk to Davies."

He trundled off to the kitchen as I stepped out. I went across the street, arranged for Dmitri to watch the house, and went off to speak with Davies about getting the boys to keep watch for Banning. 

"Vincent!" Gopher was manning the counter, so I went over to talk. Hoping he might have some useful gossip. "How's it going?"

"Good." I ordered a cup of coffee. "Any word on Cooper?" 

I'd found that if you directly ask someone for information, seven times out of ten, they'd come down with amnesia and claim oh, I know nothing. However, if you asked about something else, something related to what you wanted, all sorts of information would suddenly pour out of them. Gopher didn't disappoint me.

"He's doing great." He waved around the store. "He'll be back next week."

I nodded and leaned against the counter. The snow and the late hour had decreased the traffic in the store to dust bunnies, so we both had plenty of time.

"Good to know." I looked worried. "He's not scared of coming back?"

I sipped my coffee and watched Gopher shake his head.

"Nah." Gopher shrugged. "We figure that Banning was a fluke. You know, probably got into drugs or something and…"

Davies was keeping his mouth shut. I really needed to see if he'd like to work for the Turks.

But Gopher wasn't finished. "He's always been… you know… odd. Came up here a few years ago and never really fit in." 

I nodded, wishing that Veld had sent those files. I also wished he'd send me my clothes. I was getting a bit tired of wearing the same thing and washing them in the sink.

"We did find out something though." Gopher made a disgusted sound. "He was part of the original expedition to the City of the Anients."

"You mean, all that work…" I pretended to be surprised, but the information really only confirmed what I'd suspected.

"Yep." He shook his head. "He knew all about everything." He dug under the counter a moment. "Here look."

It was a map detailing the forest, path, and city. It even covered the ruined part of the city and caves behind it. The seahorses and monster were marked with notes on the best way to get past them. There was a small crevice marked on the path that lead directly to the back caves of the city, and there was a path marked from the exit of those caves, which was behind the northern mountains to a pass leading to Icicle.

"Can I borrow this?" I tapped the map.

"Sure." Gopher rolled it up. "It's a copy anyways."

We exchanged a few more bits of gossip, mainly about Davies and Bettina then I went and arranged for Davies to have the boys keep watch for Banning. I remembered to order the food and firewood, which Gopher assured me would be delivered quickly and I went back to keep an eye on my chick's declining health and help it decline a bit more.

He was bundled up in layers of coats, sweaters, scarves and hats and stumbling his way down the street with Dmitri ghosting unnoticed in his wobbly wake. He looked completely miserable as he halted in front of me wavering slightly. Getting him sicker wouldn't be much of a problem, especially if he kept wandering around in the middle of a snow storm.

"Firewood and food." His voice was cracking and it sounded painful for him to talk.

"Ordered them when I talked to Davies. It'll be delivered in a half hour." As I assessed his health, I suddenly thought it might be harder to keep him from getting too sick than making him sicker. I needed him out of the way temporarily, not dying in a remote outback with inadequate medical supplies.

I frowned and went back to the house with Hojo following after me. I shrugged off my coat and went over to the fire to read as he came in and started peeling off layers of outerwear. I watched him carefully, trying to gage if he was sick enough to stay put, in which case Davies would be able to magically repair the heater, or if he needed a slight push into the lands of viruses. I decided to let the matter play out for the day and return his heater to him tomorrow.

He settled at the table and began reading, his usual pot of tea at his elbow. When the food arrived, he got up, wincing and hobbling like an old man, to put the things away. He returned to play with his sample a little more, then started shivering.

I briefly wondered if I could get him to come snuggle with me, but he was far too germy. I might need him sick so I could hunt Banning, but I didn't need to get sick with him. I got up, made us some lunch and returned to my reading.

After he was done eating, he painfully got to his feet and came to perch by the fire. His nose was starting to run and a flush was creeping across his face. By dinner he was wheezing slightly and was blinking heavily at his book. The fire shifted from being too low to being too hot as I carefully monitored the wood supply, making sure he was either sweating or freezing. He bundled into a thick sweater and cuddled as close as he could to the fire.

Only after we'd finished eating did he seem to realize that he was continually sniffling and rubbing his nose. He started sneezing and a few coughs worked their way through his sore throat. I let him wallow in his denial for a bit then decided to end the game.

"You have a cold." I accused him, acting like I hadn't been working for that moment all day.

"No I don't." He mumbled. "'s all'gies."

Allergies? Really? I gave him a disgusted look. "Go to bed before you infect me."

He still protested, even as he sniffled. "I'm not sick."

Stubborn chick. _Would anyone mind if I killed you? _I got up shaking my head when he started babbling nonsense.

"My mother would." He glared at me. "She checks on me every week."

Now he's a mind reader? I frowned at him, discouraging this new habit. "Go take a shower."

He seemed to like that idea and went to wallow in hot water. He splashed around in there for awhile and I whipped together a home remedy my mother had made me drink whenever I got sick. While it tasted hideous, I used to think drinking weed killer would have been more tasty, it did help lessen the symptoms of a cold. Not cure them, that was another recipe, but it did help make the whole thing more bearable.

He seemed perkier when he came out, but it only lasted a few minutes and then fell onto his bed with a soft, choked moan.

Poor chick.

I poured the drink into a mug and came over to him. I was prepared to bully him to get him to drink the stuff and had donned my tough, hard-ass, Turk face. "Drink."

He grimaced the whole time, but he gulped the stuff down. When he was finished, he looked miserable. His eyes were blurry. His nose was already starting to run. His face had turned pale during his experience with the herbal concoction I'd forced him to drink. His hair straggled limply around his face and he sat huddled and shivering on his bed.

I sat down next to him and motioned for him to turn. "Turn around."

His brain must have been foggy as well. He looked at me confused and only could mutter a confused sound. I playfully grabbed the towel he had wrapped around his waist, getting a good view of just how well proportioned my hatchling was. Very nice.

I suppressed my pleased smirk "Your hair's wet. You'll get sicker." 

I motioned for him to turn around again and after a few confused blinks and a bit of blushing, he complied, which gave me a good view of his other side. Again, very nice. I wouldn't have known that considering he generally wore baggy clothes and seemed attached to an old, ratty lab coat that covered him from shoulder to knee. Too bad he was sick.

I started drying his hair, messaging his scalp and shoulders as I rubbed the towel through his hair. At first, he was stiff, but slowly he relaxed till he was slumping in my arms asleep. I tossed the towel aside and slipped onto his bed, cradling him against me and pulling the blankets around him. I'd been cruel enough for one day. He was sick. I had gotten what I wanted. I could spend a bit of time being nice. He snuggled closer to me breathing my name.

I froze at the sound.

I'd been playing with him, teasing, trying to get him naked in bed, and now I'd accomplished it. The problem, besides his sickness, was that… I wasn't sure I was the one who trapped him. I'd been so focused on my job, on the game that I was playing, that I let things run out of my control. What was I doing?

Veld would be having meltdown if he could see me. I'd made huge mistakes on the investigation, forgetting that I was a Turk first and a bullet answers a lot of questions. I'd wandered around Bone Village acting in more ways than one like an idiot slacker. I was playing stupid, sensless games with the chick, and…

I got caught.

Someplace between stepping into his office a year ago, and his falling asleep in my arms, he'd caught me. Me! The one who acquired and disposed of lovers faster than I disposed of cheap coffee cups. The whole city of Midgar was my toy box so why should I content myself with one toy. But I didn't want the toys. They were pretty. They all gave me anything I wanted, their time, their bodies, their devotion, but I didn't want them. I wanted a stupid chocobo chick who drank too much, thought too much, and gangled around the house with foolish smile and wasn't even close to being good looking. And I didn't want him to leave. I could see us together for a long time. I wanted to wake up with him curled against me as he was doing now. I wanted to come home and find him warking about his day and cooking canned food. I wanted to see what nonsense that too intelligent brain would come up with. I wanted to see him turn from the perky yellow chick that he was into the mythic gold chocobo that I knew he'd one day become. I wanted his present self and his future self.

Veld would howl. The chick had turned me into a long termer while he was still searching for toys.

I'd have to change his mind.

I woke up early and wiggled out from under him. I made him some breakfast, toast and juice, and another cup of herbal mix with a dire message of retribution if he didn't swallow it down like a good little fledgling. I dug his music player out of the drawer where he kept absentmindedly stashing it and set it next to the plate, hoping he'd get the message and stay inside to watch movies and rest. I had things to do and with my chick safely tucked away, I intended on making up for lost time.

I went and checked in with Dmitri.

"Any word yet?" I asked as I brushed snow off my shoulders. It was snowing heavily still and just crossing the street had been special.

"Two diggers who found more of the sample were found this morning, both shot in their beds." He frowned. "It looks like they died yesterday sometime. When they didn't show up this morning a couple of men went looking for them."

Banning hadn't waited long.

"Any clues?" I grabbed a piece of paper and started writing. 

"Sand." Dmitri held out another small plastic bag. "It was found near the door in some boot prints and inside on the front doormat."

I took the evidence and looked at it. It was the same pale gray sand as before. It also gave away where Banning had to be, the City of the Ancients. He wasn't going to get away. I had the map still folded in my pocket and I knew all the little hideaways he could use.

"Excellent." I handed Dmitri the paper that I'd written my mother's recipe on. "Make sure Hojo drinks this every eight hours and make sure he eats. I'll be back when I can."

I was out the door and digging in my pocket for my cell.

"Veld, I've got a trail." I raced towards the entrance to the Sleeping Forest. "He's holed up in the Ancient's city."

"What do you need?" He sounded crisp and efficient, ready to give me what I needed to get the job done. I only wish he'd been a bit more efficient getting me more practical things.

"I might need a pick-up. I'll be heading for the city, but if he bolts, he'll run for Icicle through the snow canyons." I ran into the forest then paused. I'd forgotten the harp, but the trees hummed softly at me, making me feel welcome. Like before, the trees were happy that I was there, whether I had a harp or not. And like before, I felt the urge to go wander amongst them stroking their trunks and feeling their leaves caress my skin. I shook it off.

"Fine. I'll have a team ready. Need anything else?" 

"Body armor would be nice." It was a dig. I'd asked for one to be sent with the rest of my gear and clothes.

"Suck it up." He didn't sound like he was going to send it anytime soon. Where had all that brisk, efficient helpfulness evaporated to?

"Thanks. If anything happens, Dmitri knows what's been going on. Also, think about recruiting Davies, the village's headman.

"Sure. Sure." He brushed my thoughtful planning aside. "Just call me when you kill the fucker."

He hung up on that cheer filled thought and I came to the area where the seahorses were. I dug around in my pockets and pulled out the materia that Davies had given me. With mastered fire materia, dealing with the seahorses was simple. The monster by the bridge was easily disposed of and as I sped down the path, looking for ambushes, I wondered if the Ancients had bred that thing just to hang out at the top of the stairs and if they were going to go extinct if I kept turning them to ash one at a time.

I ducked into the crevice at the bottom of the path and wiggled through its tight confines to the far side of the city. It was dark and not too pleasant, but it was better than taking the open path. This way I might be able to surprise Banning before he even noticed I was there.

I emerged in a small, relatively clean room that had a small bed, portable gas stove, and a small trunk with its lid standing open revealing that it had been emptied. Banning had already fled. 

Snarling, I drew my gun and checked out the door. There was a rough hewn corridor that went left and a smoother one going to the right. I could hear someone talking in the distance from the left, so I carefully made my way down the hall listening.

"I've got the sample." 

"Yes. Yes."

"No. I didn't. They were looking for me. I couldn't get near enough."

"Okay."

I could only hear Banning's voice and wondered if he was talking to his Wutaian contacts. 

I crept closer hoping for a shot, but Banning suddenly started moving.

"Fine. I'll be there."

They were going to meet him? Maybe I should let him live long enough to meet his contacts. I'd killed the first before I could get any information out of him, but maybe I could find a more talkative Wutaian to be my confidant. 

I ducked into a small rough nook as Banning came out of what seemed to be another room. He was heading deeper into the caverns. He never bothered looking behind himself feeling safe in the city.

"Two?" He strode down the hall and turned into another. "Can you make it sooner?"

I followed along, keeping far enough back that he wouldn't see me.

"Fine."

He was, if I remembered the map, winding back towards the tunnel that led to the pass that would take him to Icicle. It would take about a day of travel to get there from here. I wasn't looking forward to the trip. It would be far better to take Banning out now and have Veld send a team to give our Wutaian friends a hearty welcome.

I hurried forward and spotted Banning as he stepped out into the snowy pass. I dashed forward, trying to still catch him before he got lost in the snow. It's a bitch to shoot with any accuracy in a heavy snowstorm and I'd have preferred to forgo that pleasure. Banning had other ideas and as I rushed forward he saw me and dodged into the storm and under cover.

Damn bastard.

I wove carefully into the storm, all my senses straining in the soft white hiss of snow. The whole day promptly turned into a nightmare. Banning had to be one of those smart psychos that refused to get provoked into giving his position away. He also had to be armed. I spent the next day and a half dodging from rock to tree to anonymous snowdrift dodging bullets and trying to get a clear shot at Banning through a near blizzard. 

The jacket that Hojo had given me was a good jacket and kept me from dying in the freezing wind that made the snow blast into my face like ice pellets, but it wasn't meant for spending a night out in the middle of the arctic. As soon as it got too dark to safely move for fear of falling into an ice hole, I huddled behind a group of rocks and used the fire materia to heat one of them.

The next morning the second it became light enough to move I slipped from my hiding place to continue hunting for Banning. I'd used up all my magical strength staying warm, but I wasn't too worried. Icicle was only a half day away and one way or another I would be at there or dead by tonight. I checked my 

ammo, decided to be more careful with my shots, and went to find out where Banning had spent the night. I wasn't pleased when a bullet snipped across the side of my thigh from behind me. Banning had had the same idea.

Bastard.

We continued our dance, weaving slowly towards Icicle. Or so I thought. It was nightfall again and I saw no trace of Icicle. I dug into a snow drift and used what small amount of magic I still possessed to start a small fire in the tree I uncovered. I didn't dare try to sleep, not with a fire pinpointing my location and the cold trying to turn me into part of the landscape. I spent the night huddled, shivering, and dolefully realizing that if I didn't get to Icicle tomorrow, early, there was a good chance I'd die on the ice fields.

I was staggered to my feet before dawn and this time ignored Banning. I carefully climbed up a hill, looking for any trace of civilization. I could guess from the sun's position that the town had to be over the next set of hills towards the northwest. 

I trekked towards the village. Sooner or later, and I was betting sooner. Banning had to go there and I wanted to be waiting. I barely made the edge of the village before a ragged figure appeared stumbling out of the snowstorm.

When he saw me, he instantly grabbed for his gun. Stupid bastard. I already had Quicksilver in my hand. He had no chance. I felt a warm glow of satisfaction as his body slumped to the ground. I went over and riffled through his pockets. I found a small glass vile of the sample, a few letters, and a thick wad of gil. 

I left him there and went into the inn. The desk clerk looked shocked as I dragged myself to the counter. "Room, please." 

He just stood there looking at me.

"I need a room." I wanted to collapse now. The floor seemed to be beckoning me.

The clerk blinked a few times and backed away. I wondered dreamily what was wrong with the boy, but I seemed to be floating away. The last thing I felt as I drifted off was a pair of arms catching me as I fell backwards.

I woke drifted back to the feeling of being warm. My hands and feet tingled and burned and my face felt sore. It was dark and I couldn't see anything. I tried turning my head, but it was too much effort. But I had a job to do. Had I really killed Banning? How about his contacts? Where was my chick? Where was I for that matter? I tried to struggle up, needing answers.

"You awake?" 

Veld.

I let myself relax. "Yes." My mouth felt dry.

"Good. Hang on a moment." There was some rustling from near where I was laying and a moment later a light came on and Veld was leaning over me. "You look like shit."

"Thanks." My voice was barely a whisper.

Veld helped me sit up and held a glass to my lips. "Doc said for you to drink this when you woke up."

I didn't argue. The potion tasted bitter sweet on my tongue and a bit too thick, but it was better than nothing. As it took effect, I looked around. I was in a room at the inn with its cheerful ski lodge décor. There were two beds. I was in one, and by the look of it, Veld had been laying on the other.

"Okay, now tell me." Veld sat down on the edge of the bed. "We found Banning's body."

I nodded and told him about my delightful travels through the pass to Icicle. Half way through, he called down for room service and as I finished my tale of wondrous places to avoid, I had a large glass of juice and a bowl of warm, homemade soup.

"Sounds like fun." Veld was eating an overflowing sandwich and guzzling down a beer which I felt was unfair. Veld got to drink. Hojo nearly swam in drinks. I was the one who had suffered and I wanted a drink too. 

"He was supposed to meet the Wutaians yesterday." At least I hoped it had been yesterday. I started wondering just how long I'd been sleeping.

Veld nodded. "We found them. Stupid fuckers. They didn't even try to hide." Veld leaned back in his chair. "A group of Wutaians in sharp suites is really easy to spot. They were even flashing weapons. Dumb. Really dumb. Even not knowing you were headed this way with Banning, I would have rounded them up."

I sipped my soup, feeling sleepy. "I have to get back to the village. I don't know if Banning was working alone."

"He was." Veld smirked nastily. "One of the Wutaians came down with a guilty conscience and couldn't wait to unburden himself."

I pushed the soup away and Veld relocated it to the bedside stand. "I really should get back."

"Yeah. Sure." Veld nodded, watching as I slipped down under the covers again. "Whatever you say."

I had to swallow anther potion the next morning, but after snarling a few morning pleasantries at my partner, I was allowed to go down for breakfast. He hovered a bit, but by the time I was chomping my way through eggs, potatoes, biscuits and gravy, and a steak, he was back to being himself and was laughing at me about Hojo.

"I knew it." He laughed. "I knew when you fell you'd fall hard."

"Thanks." I grunted as I chewed on my steak. "The problem is what do I do with him now?"

Veld sobered up. "Nothing. You leave him alone."

"Hm?" I looked up from my plate. "What do you mean?"

He sighed, looking away. "Toys are fine. Having a casual bedmate, that's okay too, but we're Turks. You're going to have to kick him loose."

I frowned spearing a potato. "I don't see why."

"You'll make him a target." Veld looked away. 

I snorted. "He's already a target. His presence in the science department is a threat to Gast. He's going to take action sooner or later."

"True." Veld glanced at me then looked disgusted. "Okay, fine. Give it a try but don't come whining to me when your lover boy gets turned into a grease spot."

I let it drop. I knew that most of Veld's advice came from his own experience. When he fell in love, he fell all the way in and it had never ended well. The best ending so far had been finding his lover, a young lady from Kalm, hiding in a closet crying and terrified after a group of drug pushers had broken into their apartment.

I changed the subject and we discussed other things, like why I never got my things (someone had misplaced the work order to bring them up to me), how the drug war and fight against crime was going (the drug dealers had strangely all killed themselves in a mass expression of guilt), and various inner office gossip (three secretaries had ended up pregnant and they all pointed to Gast as the daddy). 

After breakfast, Veld hustled me back to our room and abandoned me to the mercies of the town doctor. He was a young, young man with bright blue eyes, black hair, and a wide, white smile.

"You're lucky you didn't lose any digets." He inspected my hands and feet. "I wouldn't have been surprised if you had."

Thank the Planet for potions.

He listened to me breath, recommended that I stay warm and inside for another day, and gave me a list of potions and vitamins that he wanted me to take. By the end of his poking and smiling, I was tired. I fell onto my bed, pulled the covers over me and went to sleep.

I woke the next morning to find that the snowstorm had finally stopped and the sun had come out. I pulled myself away from my nice warm bed to look out the window. People, dressed in bright ski gear, were bustling around carrying sleds and skis. As I watched, I saw Veld amble down the street talking to two men I recognized as Turks. He spotted me, waved, said a few words with the men, and hurried into the inn.

"I've arranged transport back to Bone Village for you." He tossed his bright jacket into a corner. "Come get some breakfast and we'll get going."

Davies greeted me as I came back through the village. "Vincent, good to see you."

I was lugging my things, that Veld had brought with him on the transport. I now had all kinds of useful items: clothes, warm jackets, underwear, thermal socks, body armor, a full set of mastered materia, listening divices, binoculars, extra amo, all the happy things that would have made my life easier while hunting for Banning. 

"Hi." I stopped and caught my breath. Veld had dropped me off outside of the village. "How's Bettina?"

He grinned. "Beautiful. I'm thinking of proposing."

"Lucky man." I smiled. "A beautiful, good woman who is an excellent cook. I don't suppose she has a twin who's single?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Sorry. She's one of a kind."

I continued dragging my stuff down the streets, occasionally waving or returning a greeting from the residents. I briefly stopped at Dmitri's and gifted him with some of my new electronic gadgets and caught up on the happenings in the village.

"The snowstorm shut down the excavations for the season. The ground's too hard to dig." Dmitri was inspecting a small spy camera. "So most of the research is centering on the city."

I nodded. "Interesting."

"Hmmm. I haven't heard much otherwise. Cooper's better and is back serving substandard coffee and Hojo's doing well." He glanced up at me. "I've let him think that you're still in town. He doesn't know I've been the one caring for him."

I nodded. "Thanks."

I left my things at Dmitri's and headed over to see my chick. He was sitting at the table, muttering to himself about parsley when I came in. He looked good with bright eyes and clear breathing. His nose was peeling some from all his sniffling and sneezing, but it wasn't running. I looked him over carefully and nodded.

"Okay, you're better."

He nearly flattened me on the way out the door. I went and got my things and started putting them away. I quickly realized I'd need a locked chest or something to keep inquisitive chocobos out of my ammunition, so I went back to the store. Hojo was almost racing around the village in a burst of pent up energy. He looked at the people going out sliding with envious eyes. I caught his eye and frowned. He wilted then bounced off. I got a footlocker at the store and went home. When my chick hadn't shown hide nor beak in an hour, I went after him. He was, unsurprisingly, at the bar.

I went over to him, picked up his drink and found that it was only hot cider. Just to be sure he wouldn't backslide and end up with a relapse, I decided to encourage his further exploration of sobriety.

I leaned close. "If I catch even a hint of alcohol on your breath, I'm going to tie you up and hang you upside down from the ceiling."

He looked doubtful.

"Fine. Forget the tying. I'll just hang you from the ceiling by one foot and you can flop around there all night."

He still looked doubtful.

"You want me to give you a demonstration?"

He shook his head and pulled his cider closer to himself. 

Satisfied that I'd made sure of my chick's continued health and well being, I went back to the skull and finished putting my things away. Looking around, I realized that while I'd been gone and Hojo had been sick, the place had descended into a pit of filth, so I got out the cleaning things and got to work. I had a few things to think over anyway, like what I was going to do with my chick now that I didn't have to spend so much time hunting for a killer.

Game playing was over. I'd had my fun. I wanted more than watching him gape and blush. I wanted him. I wanted to feel his skin, taste his lips and mouth, bury myself deep in his body as he moved under me. I nearly shuddered with the need to have him.

I finished my cleaning and found my book. I sat next to the fireplace and tried to distract myself. I knew just what I was going to do. In a few hours my chick came home, happy and sober. He played with the sample, called his boss asking when the equipment he'd requested would arrive and I guessed that if Gast had any influence, which he did, it probably would never get here.

I decided to make the opening move to my game. ""If you aren't doing anything tomorrow," I looked casually over to him as if there was nothing special about my offer. "We are going to the City of the Ancients. You might be useful." 

He didn't need to know we consisted of him and me and his most useful act would be done naked.

He nodded, his eyes looking excited. "Okay, what time?

I kept my triumph off my face. "Early."

He smiled and bounced around, still suffering from too much energy. He gradually wound down and grabbed his coat. It was dark and cold. I could guess where he'd end up, the bar.

"Where are you going?" I used a threatening edge in my tone. I didn't want a hung over chick. I wanted him fully functional and aware tomorrow. "It's dark."

He wilted a bit and took off his coat. "Nowhere."

Good chick, I'd make sure he got a treat tomorrow for that. "Go to bed. We're leaving early."

He went to bed. I stayed up reading for a bit more then went to bed too. I had lots of things to do tomorrow and I wanted to be well rested to do them. 

I woke in the wee hours of the morning and spent a long time staring at the embers of the fire. It was too early to wake Hojo, but I was too excited to get any sleep. So I ran through my plans a few more times, arranged a new schedule for myself to accommodate the lack of homicidal wackos in my life, and made a few lists of things I would need if I was going to stay here longer.

It was almost dawn when I finally gave up and pulled my fledgling out of bed. He squawked and fluttered a bit, but with the promise of new, interesting places to visit, he calmed down. I bundled him up and we were out the door. 

I paused at the doorstep and looked around as if expecting someone then shrugged." "Let's not wait." I started down the street. "It's warmer in the forest and it's not dangerous."

We went into the forest and got rid of our jackets. I usually kept mine on, but this time I wanted as little as possible in the way of my plans. He was happy enough to drop everything in a pile near the entrance. He was looking around trying to take everything in at once. I could almost see the smoke come out his ears as his brain went into hyperdrive. I leaned back against a tree, played the harp to keep him safe, and watched him ramble around.

_Yours?_

_Yes. Yours._

The trees whispered to each other like old aunties as he wandered beneath their branches. They seemed amused by him and I notice a branch would often shift a bit to brush against him unexpectedly, causing him to jump, or a root would catch his foot making him stumble. He'd try to break of a twig, they'd smack him. He'd look hurt and startled and they'd laugh a leafy silent laugh.

I finally called a halt to his explorations and suggested we head down to the city. The seahorses were busy eating, so they were easy to slip by, and the monster at the top of the path was nothing a quick Swift Bolt couldn't handle. We traveled peacefully down to the city and I let him loose.

He rushed around as I wandered through the streets. I could still see what it had looked like once and now that I had time, I could start to work on fixing it. The soil seemed to be good, but I'd have to work on the irrigation system first. After I got that fixed, and I was sure it was only a fix not a contruction of a whole new system, I could work on replanting.

Hojo was calming down and poking more methodically at things, so I decided to move along to the next step before he got lost in his thoughts. "There's a house over there that's quite interesting." I pointed towards the largest of the shell houses, the one next to the lake.

He rushed off to see and I followed after him. My mind was still weaving plans. I'd have to fix the bridge and perhaps I'd fix the house too. I'd need a place to stay when I worked here too late. As we walked across the bridge, I ran my fingers over the broken railing. I'd have to fix that.

Hojo looked over his shoulder at me. I pulled my thoughts back from where they had strayed. I had a plan and I needed to keep to it.

"Did you see the fish?" I waved towards the lake. 

In reality, I hadn't seen the fish either, but that didn't mean there wasn't any there. He came over and looked around with wide eyes. He wilted a second later. 

"Try over there. The water's deeper." I motioned to a place where the railing had long ago fallen away.

He zipped over there and peered intently into the water. He was such a gullible chick. I smiled fondly at his back then pulled out another Swift Bolt spell.

"Hojo! Get down!" I shoved him into the lake and tossed the spell.

He splashed in and floundered around. Chocobos aren't known as champion swimmers, but the water wasn't all that deep. I kept quiet and waited for a few moments.

"Vincent?" He whispered. 

I pretended to brush myself off and came over to him. "I don't see any more, but stay put for a moment."

He nodded, clinging to the pilings of the bridge. I walked off, nearly stomping my feet to let him know I was searching for more monsters. I wanted him good and wet. The temperature was a bit chilly, but I was going to get him out of his clothes and warm him up soon, so I wasn't too worried about his health. When I was sure was well soaked, I came back.

"All clear." 

He looked cold, so I reached down and pulled him onto the bridge. I checked around as if searching for more monsters to toss bolt three spells at then hurried him along to the house to supposed safety.

"Get in." I gave him a helping push towards the house.

He hurried as fast as his drenched shivering body could. I went and scouted the rest of the shell house, dropping a bottle of lube in a convenient location. We'd be using that later. I spent a few more minutes, letting the damp and cold convince him that his clothes and him would be better off parted and came back.

I came back, nodding as if I had done a through safety inspection of the house. "It's safe."

He was leaning against the wall shivering with his arms wrapped around him. I pulled him away and turned him towards the upper level. "There's a bed up ahead with blankets. You can get out of those wet things there."

"Clothes?" He stumbled along up the stairs.

I shrugged, "We'll have to wait till they're dry."

When we reached the bed, he tried to wrap himself in the blanket. I pulled it out of his grasp quickly. Adding more layers was not my goal.

"Wet clothes off." I put the blanket out of his reach and watched him pull off his sweater. 

He was clumsy and when it hit the floor with a thump, he looked lost. He fumbled around trying to get his shirt over his head, but his cold fingers didn't want to cooperate with him. 

"Here, let me help." I quickly pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it on the floor.

He staggered back a moment and I reached out to catch him. His skin was cool and silky under my hands. I wanted to feel more. I reached down for this pants' zipper. He blushed and tried to shove my hands away.

I pretended innocence. "Stay still, the cloth's wet."

He stuttered a bit, but I got the button loose.

"There, got it." 

The pants dropped to his ankles. All that was left was his thin cotton boxers. He tried to retreat to the bed, but I stopped him shaking my head.

"It all comes off." I told him gleefully and before he really comprehended what I meant, his boxers were on the floor too. 

I pushed him down to sit on the bed and got rid of his shoes, socks, and the accumulated clothes. I then tossed them to the other side of the room in a carefully careless gesture. I then stood up and looked him over critically. He was still damp and his lips had turned a shade of blue.

"Blue is not your color." I pretended to think something over then settled on the bed taking my shoes and socks off. "Move over."

His eyes got wide. His mouth fell open. He froze in place. His brain had just stalled.

I gently pushed him over, giving myself enough room to stretch out. "Hojo, you're recovering from a cold. I do not need you to catch pneumonia."

He barely nodded as I pulled him close to me. He snuggled down quickly though and in a few minutes he was drifting off to sleep. He was still recovering and he'd had enough excitement for one day. However, I still had a few things on my to-do list.

"Hmm. This might work better if…" I yanked the blanket off him then joined him under it.

He tensed for a moment, but I pulled him back and settled him down against me. He relaxed again and began to drift off, his face pressed against my throat. As he slipped towards sleep, I slid my hands over his back, relishing the feeling of his skin. I caressed the curves of his shoulders and back and nearly jumped as his lips fluttered against my throat. I almost thought it was my imagination, or a sleepy mistake, but a second later his tongue made a soft sweep up under my jaw which ended in a kitten soft nip. This time I was the one shivering. His lips trailed down nibbling on the tendons of my throat. I could feel his erection pressing against my thigh. I shivered again and moaned softly.

He blinked up at me startled. 

"Yes?" I stroked up his backbone and watched his brain try to catch up to his body.

"I…uh…" I could practically see his mind getting him into trouble. It would be just like that night I did the strip dance in front of the fire. He'd find some silly, chocobo chick way to mess this up.

"Shh… You think too much." I rolled him over and delighted when his body spread itself under me.

I didn't let him out of that bed till the next day. He didn't complain, at least he didn't once I revealed that I'd brought some packages of nuts to eat. By the time we got back to Bone Village any thoughts in his head about finding a different lover were gone.

I was still worried though. While I seemed to fall even farther for him, he remained quite casual. For the rest of our time in Bone Village, he would eagerly join me in bed, but never seemed to really care if I was there or not. At most, I was a fuck buddy that he could talk to. When his equipment finally came, due to President Shinra directly intervening, he rambled off and spent most of his time playing with the sample. When he did appear, he'd greet me like a half known friend and we'd spend a few minutes talking before going to be.

It was like divine retribution. I finally fell in love, and I was the toy, desperate for a bit of attention. I wasn't going to give up though. We were finally called back to Midgar and I planned that once there, I would step back a bit and try doing something I had never done before, build a relationship.

My plans were blasted to pieces the moment the helicopter taking us back landed on Shinra's helipad. A pack of Turks were waiting anxiously for me. As soon as I was clear of the helicopter's blades, I was surrounded.

"Veld! He disappeared."

"What?" My world stuttered around me. I may have been in love with Hojo, but Veld… He was my partner, my best friend, the other half of my being. I was the right hand; he was the left. I planned, he 

acted and our enemies fell. He moved through the gutters; I raced through the rooftops hunting our prey. Yin to yang, each one of us circling forever around each other. 

I rushed off, leaving my chick behind with only a few hasty orders to have him looked after. I was in Wutai hunting for Veld by that evening. It took me three months to find him, hunt down the people who had captured and tortured him, and tear a wide swath in Wutai's covert operations division.

We both stumbled back to the office, nearly dead from exhaustion, when orders landed on my desk from the president. A prostitution ring had formed and had the audacity to try to blackmail him. It had been tried before, considering how much time he spent paying women to spread their legs, I was surprised it didn't happen far more often. Still, it was top priority and Veld and I dragged our tired selves off to find out who to put bullets in.

And that's where I found him. My chick was once again drunk and was up on a stage singing some hideous song. I was undercover, so I couldn't very well go over and demand to know what he was thinking, and as far as I knew, he probably wouldn't care if I approved or not. I sat in the back of the bar we'd tracked our targets to, and tried to ignore it when he jumped off the stage to go get fondled by a muscle bound asshole that was playing pool.

It was a good thing Veld was there. He spotted Hojo too and without missing a beat picked up when I started to get sidetracked. It wasn't too hard to do. All we were trying to do was set the lot up to be taken out in the least conspicuous way we could manage. The public tended to get antsy when we just gunned a group of people down in the great wide open of Midgar's streets.

"…take the cut." One greasy individual eyed me suspiciously, causing me to wrench my attention away from my chick.

Veld shrugged. "All we want is an agreement." He spread his hands looking as forthright as street scum could get. "We have our girls; you have your girls. There's plenty of business for both. We just want to make sure our girls aren't roughed over and you don't want your girls to get it either. The only problem would be if a third party tried to move in. That would cut into the supply of customers."

The businessman approach. It was a nice on and Veld was a master of it. He'd give the scum the ego pat of being seen as an intelligent entrepreneur and they'd get all sly, believing they were actually intelligent. They'd start plotting and planning, probably about how they could steal our girls, or push us out of business by taking all the clients, and all the while Veld would be after something else, erasing them off the surface of the Planet.

A sudden commotion caught everyone's attention. The pimps grinned and laughed diverting their attention from the business in front of them for the thrill of a erupting bar fight. Veld and I moved. The would be entrepreneurs died in seconds, sprawled with bullet holes neatly over their hearts. The commotion intensified into an all out bar fight. Veld and the other Turks we'd brought pulled the bodies out of the booth, tossed them on the floor, then waded into the fight.

Even while I was pleased with neat, fast conclusion of our investigation, I was terrified. The fight had broken out right where my chick had been when I'd last seen him. I waded into the fight looking for him. I could occasionally hear gunfire, but recognized the sounds as coming from Turk standard issue firearms. Veld was covering the killings with a few more senseless bullet wounds to random people. 

I found my chick laying on the floor being trampled. People were already fleeing from the bar. It was one thing to work out drunken aggression in a physical altercation, but when people started firing guns, sobriety hit fast. I hauled Hojo off the floor and dragged him back to the table.

The rookie that I'd ordered to keep an eye on him shuffled over.

"I thought I told you to keep an eye on him." I was so angry that I could barely talk.

He squirmed in place and came up with some stupid excuses as I tried to clean the blood off my chick's face with a bar towel. The rookie however only dug his grave deeper telling me just how long he'd goofed off while he should have been watching carefully over my lover. I decided to send him home and let him think over his career choice by using him for target practice. Once he escaped, I turned to the others. 

They had good excuses. Hojo even emerged from his towel to come up with one, which I didn't appreciate and shoved the towel back on his face to keep him quiet. 

I dragged my now semi-sober chick out of the bar, to my car, and home. For three months, I'd planned on coming home and wooing my hatchling. I was going to take him out to dinners, movies, plays, and night clubs. I was going to sit in cozy bistros and talk to him about things that interested him. I was going to get him to fall in love with me as I had fallen in love with him. 

What I had found was that he'd replaced me. I was really nothing to him. Just a toy. Now that he was home, he went and found another toy to play with. I supposed that if I had stayed around, he might not have done it. We could have continued the way we were before, fuck buddies with an occasional conversation or outing to pretend there was something more between us.

When we pulled up to his apartment, I nearly shoved him out the door. He wobbled pathetically up the walkway, dripping blood from his head wound. As he tried to stumble up the steps to his apartment, I realized he'd probably collapse and fall down them, hurting himself more. 

Stupid chick.

I got out of the car and went after him. 

"I can't leave you for a second, can I?" I hauled him up the stairs and started digging for the keys in his pocket. "I'm gone…What? Three whole months?... and you're dunk, beaten, and sleeping with some blond asshole."

He wobbled as I unlocked his door, only staying on his feet because I was holding him up.

"Tell me, did you fuck him here?" I opened the door and shoved him in.

"No." He collapsed on the couch."If you must know it happened twice, he was lousy, and we did it in that hotel on Junon Street that has the pink roses. He didn't have any diseases and still doesn't. I checked. We also used condoms. Do you want to know the positions too?"

Smartass chick.

I stormed off to another room trying to calm down. I found myself in his bedroom and glared at the bed. Well, he hadn't fucked the other man here, but the thought of that blond sliding himself into my chick made me sick. I'd have to explain to the ass just how wrong he'd been to touch what wasn't his. Not that Hojo was mine, but it was the principle of the thing.

I heard him moan from the front room and went back to check on him. I walked over quietly and looked down at him. He was a mess. His eyes were swelling, he had a cut over his left eye that was still bleeding, and he had bruises on his cheek and along his jaw. I could tell from the way he was holding himself and his breathing that he had taken a few blows to the torso as well.

"Couldn't you pick someone who'd look after you." I shook my head and ran an aggravated hand through it.

"I chose on physical appearance. He was the least like you I could find at short notice for a rebound." He looked away.

I guess I was supposed to feel better that he'd chosen to let the blond fuck him because he missed me. I didn't. I growled to myself and stormed back to the bedroom. I spent a few moments pacing around the foot of his bed then went back out.

"I was only gone for three months." I felt like I was sulking.

"You were the one to walk away. I didn't even get a wave goodbye." He closed his eyes refusing to look at me.

I frowned and retreated to the bedroom. That was true. I had walked away. I had run after Veld, leaving my chick alone without even a kiss goodbye. From his point of view, I was the louse. I'd spent months with him in Bone Village then suddenly turned away from him without even a glance back.

I went back to the living room and looked down at him. "I was busy." 

"A memo would have been nice." His voice was whispery with pain.

He tried to use his foot to pull the blanket that was draped over the foot of the couch up and made a sharp cry of pain as he jounced his body. I reached down, gathered up the blanket, and spread it over him. 

"Not allowed." I told him.

He frowned to himself and I wandered off to his bathroom. I was sure he still had some of the pain killers the doctor had prescribed to him stashed away somewhere. He was a bit of a pack rat when it came to anything to do with chemicals. 

When I finally found them, tucked behind a bottle of crystallized mouthwash, I went to the kitchen for a glass of water. He was still laying on the couch trying to find a painless position when I came back in.

"Sorry. I didn't realize. I thought that once we got back, you just went back to your own life and didn't care." He whispered as I walked around the couch.

"I care. Here, take these." I knelt down next to him so I would be on his level.

He opened his eyes and looked at me for a moment then smiled. I got him to take the medicine then left him again. I checked the kitchen for some ice, but his freezer was packed full of food containers and didn't have even a single ice tray in it. I scouted around his bathroom for a bit and only came up with a fossilized hot water bottle and a small bottle of iodine.

I was just wondering if I should go locate a pharmacy and an ice machine when my cell phone rang.

"Where the fuck are you?" Veld snarled. "I've got the president screaming about excessive use of force and public relations disasters.

I went out to check on my chick, but he was out cold. "I'm on my way."

I made a quick list of things I'd need for Hojo and went off to deflect as much damage as possible from the Turks and onto the local police department. I figured they owed us for all the drug pushers, pimps, and other lowlifes we culled out of the cesspool of Midgar. The least they could do was occasionally take some flak for us.

The president wasn't so much worried, I found out, about the dead pimps. He seemed rather pleased over that. It was the property damage to the bar that had him in a tizzy. I made soothing sounds, explained how the assistant-director to the Research and Development department had been dragged into the middle of a dangerous bar fight and force had to be used to get him to safety. I waxed a bit eloquent about how police patrols in the area had declined and how the crime levels had started rising. I described how petty thugs were running the streets in that neighborhood due to police negligence and sang a few lines about the horror that innocent civilians had to face just walking home, never mind stopping in a bar for a drink and a bit of socializing, after spending all day laboring for Shinra's glory.

He swallowed it all and by the time I left was on the phone to the police chief threatening to cut off Shinra's rather hefty support if he didn't clean up that neighborhood. After all, his poor, overworked 

Turks couldn't do everything. And to think, one of his top scientists, one of his best and brightest had been injured because of their incompetence. It was sheer luck that the Turks had been there to protect him and keep the situation from escalating out of control.

There were times I loved that man. He knew a PR campaign a mile off and could exploit it to the fullest. I fully expected that the PR department would spin doctor the whole thing into heroic Turks wading into a dangerous situation, endangering themselves to preserve the peace and welfare of Midgar. Yet another shining chapter to Shinra's Fight Against Crime.

I dragged myself to the nearest drug store, bought some bandages, antibiotic ointment, a potion, and hydrogen peroxide to take care of my chick. I also spent a few happy moments on the phone with the Turk's private physician having him call in a prescription for pain medication to the pharmacist and getting advice on what to do with Hojo.

I barely managed to get my tired feet up the stairs to Hojo's apartment. He was still sleeping peacefully on the couch. I checked him over then went to the bedroom and turned down the blankets. He'd be more comfortable sleeping in a bed than on that narrow couch. It nearly brought me to the floor, but I managed to pick him up without waking him, and bring him into the bedroom. I stripped him carefully and winced at the damage he'd taken.

His ribs were broken with a large dark bruise already spreading itself across his ribcage. There were bruises to his back, pelvis, and legs, but few on his stomach. He'd probably curled into a ball or fallen face down when he was hit. There were a few scrapes on his arms and face, but nothing serious. I washed them all carefully and put some ointment on them. 

When I was sure they were all clean, I managed to wake him up enough to pour a potion down his throat. While it wouldn't do much for the bruising, it would deal with the ribs and any internal injuries he might have. I then maneuvered him into his favorite tee shirt and flannel shorts and tucked him under the blankets.

I shucked off my own clothes, made sure the apartment was as secure as possible, tucked Quicksilver under my pillow just in case, and collapsed into bed next to Hojo. 

The next morning I woke to find that I'd wrapped myself around him in the night. He was cradled around me with his head on my shoulder and his legs tangled with mine. He was trying to get up with as little pain as possible and finding that any movement caused pain. I shifted myself carefully placing one hand on his hip to keep him in place and kissed the one spot that didn't seem to have a cut, bruise, or scrape on it, his temple.

"Go back to sleep. No one is expecting you to be anywhere today." By now Hojo had probably been promoted to a martyr of police incompetence.

He settled back and quit trying to move about. I made a move to untangle myself and get out of bed, but he caught my hand, holding it against the hip it was laying on.

"You too. You're tired."

He was right, even after a night of sleep, I was barely functional. I gave him another kiss and slipped away. "I'll be back by noon. Now, sleep and I'll leave breakfast on the bedside table. I don't want you out of bed today."

I went and took a cold shower, hoping to wake up, went out and got the paper and found that the bar fight had made the front page under the banner of Police Corruption Probe. I read it as I fixed breakfast for me and Hojo. The president, or the PR department, had done a brilliant job of spinning the incident. The police were accused of taking bribes to allow organized crime to flourish in some of the less affluent neighborhoods. This was only uncovered when a scientist, who's name wasn't released to protect him from police retribution, was attacked in a neighborhood bar when he'd gone in looking there searching for a functioning payphone. Only prompt action by a group of off duty Turks had prevented the altercation from turning into a riot that would have jeopardized the homes and businesses of the honest, hard working folks that had been living in terror in that benighted neighborhood.

It's always nice to begin the day with a laugh.

I brought Hojo his breakfast and medicine. He was still awake so I gave him his medicine, left his medicine on the bedside stand, and tucked the blankets around him. I crept out of the apartment and down the stairs, telling myself I'd be back by noontime at the latest.

Veld was still out when I arrived in the office. I had a message from the president requesting that I prepare a written report of the near tragedy in the bar so that the PR department could field any questions that might get asked during a press conference that had been called that afternoon so that Shinra could once again express its support for the people of Midgar, bravely stand behind the faltering police department, and reiterate its Fight Against Crime. There was also a second memo telling me to make plans to absorb the Midgar police into the Turks in the near future.

I spent the rest of the day playing politician and cursing Veld. Politics was his area and not once did he show up. I tried to call on his cell, but he only grunted a few curses at me and hung up. 

I managed to drag my near dead self back up the stairs to Hojo's around sunset. I tried to be quiet and not wake him ask I slipped in the door and went down to his room. I must have woken him since he was looking at me blearily when I looked in.

He looked better. He wasn't wincing in pain and his color had gone from ashen gray to a healthy cream tone.

"Better." I told him, trying to figure out what food I could feed him quickly so I could fall into bed.

He shook his head at me and patted the space next to him. "Get some sleep. You're tired."

I shook my head. He needed to eat. "Dinner."

He patted the bed again. "Come on. There's food in the freezer. I feel good enough to put things into the microwave."

He had a microwave. Oh, yes, now I remember. I stumbled to the bed and collapsed.

I woke up suddenly hearing a tea kettle. For a disoriented moment, I was back in Bone Village and Banning was running free planning to kill my fledgling. I startled out of bed and found myself in Midgar. I could hear some soft rustling from the kitchen so I went that way.

He was just uncovering a fragrant plate of sweet and sour pork when I slumped in to lean against the door. There were other plates scatterd on the counter: chicken and snow peas, fried rice with tiny shrimp, stuffed crab, and a bowl of hot and sour soup. It smelled heavenly.

"Where?" I wondered for a moment if this was frozen take out from a date with the blond.

"My mother sends me food every week." He looked embarrassed.

I smiled. His mother was a good woman. A good mother. I loved her already.

We ate at the tiny dining room table then went back to bed. My sweet chick nestled himself against me and I fell asleep realizing that for the first time in a long, long time I wasn't just sleeping in a bed, I was sleeping at home.


	4. Meetings in Odd Places

Now a Monster

Chapter 4: Meetings in Odd Places

* * *

The WRO transport kicked up the desert sand, sending it in a sharp, biting wave at the two figures who stood peering up at it. As the transport's bulk settled, a side door was flung open and a blond figure flung itself out of the craft and ran through the swirling sand to fling itself at one of those waiting.

"Zack!" The blond, Cloud decked his long missed friend to the ground.

Zack laughed, reaching up and tousling his hair. "Hey, Spike! You went and got all grown up. Even your spikes have grown."

Cloud couldn't end the silly grin that had taken up residence on his face. "You're alive. You're really alive."

"Well, yeah." Zack shoved him playfully, sending him sprawling then pounced back, pinning his friend to the ground. "And what about you Mr. Save-the-Planet? Didn't you buy it a couple of times… say getting sucked into the lifestream up north and getting miraculously spat out in Mideel, then how about getting blown to bits on top of the old Shinra tower."

Cloud wiggled, his grin getting wider. "I knew it! It was you!"

Cloud kicked, upsetting Zack's hold and followed up with twisting his body, sliding out of Zack's grasp. Zack snickered and bounced to his feet, circling Cloud and looking for an opening. Cloud danced in a counter pattern.

"Sure, I couldn't let my best buddy get sucked into the lifestream like that. Besides…" He winked, feinted to the right then dove at Cloud's knees bringing the blond down with a thump. "How could I impress Aer if you were hanging around looking all heroic like?"

Cloud kicked upwards, arching his body out of the knee lock and sprang a few paces away. "So you kicked me out?"

"Yep." Zack grinned, completely unrepentant.

Yuffie, having exited the transport when it landed edged around the continuing wrestling match and came to stand next to Nanaki, who was sitting watching the two friends say hello, and contemplating how kittens tumble and growl across a carpet in play.

"Hi." She watched as Cloud swept Zack's feet out from under him and got a returning elbow in his stomach for his efforts. "…uh…" She winced as Cloud's head slammed into the ground with a loud thump. "how's things?"

"Not bad really. The canyon is safe and the people are happy" Nanaki nodded. "How are you, Yuffie? Are you well?"

Cloud flipped Zack over his shoulder, but Zack twisted bringing Cloud down with him. The two landed in a pile of laughter and dust. They tussled around a bit more then Cloud was thrown a few feet away to skid on his butt till he came to rest against the strut of the transport, snickering softly.

"I've been good." Yuffie blinked the sand from her eyes. "Been working for Reeve. Got some great materia."

Nanaki nodded. "I'm glad." He nodded up the stairs to the entrance to Cosmo Canyon was." Shall we?"

"Uh…but…"

She watched as Cloud caught Zack in a head lock and proceeded to mess up his black hair. Zack laughed and grabbed Cloud around the waist, shoving with his shoulder and sending them both to the ground.

"Oh." Nanaki nodded. "That's easy enough to deal with. I got some advice from…" he paused a moment, looking uncertain, "an expert… on how to handle Zack." He leapt up a few steps then yelled, "Dinner in five minutes!"

The tussling stopped and two pairs of glowing blue eyes looked up at him.

"Dinner?" Cloud felt his stomach yammer for food.

"Five minutes?" Zack felt the impending onset of starvation nip at him.

"Only clean people are allowed to eat." Nanaki stepped aside as two blurs raced past him up the stairs.

Yuffie blinked. "Whoa. How…?"

"My expert says that the side effect of mako and exertion is the need to consume a lot of carbohydrates quickly." Nanaki nodded for Yuffie to proceed him up the stairs. "When I thought about it, I realized he was correct. After almost every fight, if food was available, Cloud would… as you say…pig out."

Yuffie watched as Cloud and Zack reached the top of the stairs. The blond and the brunet were shoulder to shoulder as they disappeared under the gate, pushing and laughing as they ran. As they disappeared into the pueblo, she could hear their happy yells as they raced each other towards the canyon's baths.

"I wish Tif' was here." She walked up the stairs. "She's been worried about Cloud. Reeve's been putting a lot on him about Vinnie and the demons."

"Has there been any word?" Nanaki paced up the steps at her side, looking worriedly up at her.

"No. Everyone thinks Vinnie's gone wacko." The little ninja shook her head. "He wouldn't. I just know it. He wouldn't."

"I agree." Nanaki nodded to the gatekeeper as they walked under the gate. "Vincent may be hurt and sorrowful, but he is a strong, good man. If his demons are indeed loose killing innocents, than I fear that something terrible has befallen our friend."

"Yeah, he needs our help!" Yuffie nodded looking as fierce as she could. "He doesn't need Reeve and Barret hunting him down." She turned, giving her cat friend a look of outrage, "Reeve even got the Turks to go hunt for him. The Turks! They'll kill him. You know it. They're just a bunch of Shinra goons and they'll just shoot Vinnie and…"

"We will just have to find him first." The firecat nodded firmly. "We, his friends, owe him that."

Yuffie nodded, gulping for a moment, trying to show Nanaki that the world's greatest ninja, and the single white rose of Wutai didn't cry in sheer relief because someone finally listened after weeks of her desperate pleading. She took a deep breath that was definitely not a sniff, or if it was it was because of the dust. "Right."

"Has Cloud said anything?" Nanaki pretended to stop a second and pull a nonexistent thorn out of his paw as a few more sniffs –from the dust- came from his friend.

"Just that he doesn't want to be the one to have to harm Vinnie." Yuffie walked up the stairs to Nanaki's house.

"Then we will talk over this situation and see how we can best help Vincent. I am sure with the information that Zack has already shared with me, we can arrive at a solution."

Bugenhagen's observatory hadn't changed much. The seating had changed to low soft pillows and the kitchen area had been rearranged into a high tech communication's center, but the place still looked like an old man's bachelor pad to Yuffie. She flung herself down on some of the pillows, sending up a fine dusting of cat hair to tickle her nose, and watched as her feline friend called down for dinner.

00

Zack leaned back against the pool's edge flicking his fingers idly through the water as he tipped his head back. "I missed this."

"Cosmo Canyon?" Cloud lounged on the other side of the pool still watching his friend with happy disbelieving eyes.

"Nah." Zack grinned a lazy smile. "Hot water. All there is, is mako and holy." He rolled his head slightly to look at his friend. "Holy's fun. You can swim around in that, but…it's different. But the mako slides, now those are great."

Cloud nodded, "Yeah…sure."

"Just wait till you get there. We'll go sliding. It's great." Zack gave a pretend self-pitying sniff. "Aeris won't go with me. Says she's got too much to do, so we'll go. It's great."

"How…how's Aeris? Is she?" Cloud looked uneasily around, his smile faltering.

"She's wonderful. She's busy keeping an eye on everything." He nudged Cloud's knee with his toe. "You should hear her yowl about some of the things you do on that bike of yours. Burn your ears off…"

Cloud ducked his head embarrassed.

"But sliding is great. I was waiting for Seph to get all unJenovaed, but…" Zack watched his friend carefully hiding behind a careless smile.

Cloud jerked, his grin gone.

"He was still sleeping in the holy and Aer wouldn't let me bug him." Zack sighed a long put-upon sigh.

"He…he…" Cloud got up. "He destroyed…"

"Nothing." Zack shook his head. "I told you that something was wrong with Seph. I was right…well, in a way… That wasn't really Seph that did that. It was Jenova." He shrugged. "She ate his brain or something."

"But he…I…you saw…" Cloud shook his head. "And the clones, he said…"

"Nah, that was Jenova too." Zack waved it away then looked at Cloud worriedly. "You going to blame him for getting his brain eaten by Jenova? Man, that's mean."

"He killed…"

"Poor guy tries his best all his life and takes a nap in the wrong place and gets his brain eaten by a creepy alien and you make it all his fault." Zack shook his head and sighed. "My fault really. He used to watch out for me all the time, like when old man Shinra used to go off on his the-traitors-are-amongst-us psycho-rants and started ordering the Turks to clean house. Seph used to make sure I didn't get cleaned away, and then there was that time with the monsters in Icicle. I would have been nothing more than a greasy smear and he kept my butt alive." Zack sighed again, his eyes sad. "And how do I repay him? I let him get his brain eaten. I knew he was upset and tired. I should have stayed and watched out for him, but I went to bed and some dead alien chick eats his brain." Zack drooped. "My fault." He looked sadly up at Cloud. "If you want to blame someone for what happened to your home town, then blame me. I should have watched his back. It was my fault she got him."

Cloud shook his head. "No. Jenova was…"

"I'm the one he trusted, ya know. I watched out for him and he watched out for me." Zack looked away. "I let him down."

"You couldn't have…"

"He depended on me and look… He got all Jenovaed and spent years getting yanked around and tortured by a crazy alien chick."

"Jenova was…"

"Just say it, Spike." Zack got up, his head hanging low. "I fucked it all up."

"No." Cloud stepped forward. "Jenova did it, not you. You couldn't have known that Jenova would attack him."

Zack shrugged turning away. "I should have known. He was acting weird and…"

Cloud grabbed him by the shoulders. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't know that Jenova was around. You couldn't have stopped her if you did know. She wanted Sephiroth and she got him."

"But it's all my fault that…"

"No, Jenova did it. She wants to destroy the Planet and she grabbed Sephiroth when he couldn't defend himself. It was no one's fault but hers."

Zack looked up uncertainly. "You really think that?"

Cloud nodded firmly. "Yes, Jenova did it."

Zack grinned. "Seph's going to be so happy to hear you say that! Just wait till I tell him!"

"What?!"

"He used to worry about that all the time." Zack grabbed a towel and dried himself off jauntily. "Hey, let's both go tell him."

"What?!" Cloud stumbled back as Zack grinned at him.

"Yeah! It'll be great. We'll both tell him." Zack slung an arm around Cloud's shoulders. "Come on, no time like the present!"

"Wha…" Cloud was dragged, clutching a towel around his waist, out of the bathing room.

"He used to wake up, ya know, every once in awhile and he'd worry." Zack kept pulling Cloud along as the residents of Cosmo Canyon laughed and giggled in their wake. "He'd look at me and say, "They blame me, don't they Zack?" and I'd say, "No they don't." and he'd say, "Cloud does." That really upset him, ya know. He really thought a lot of you."

Cloud blushed as a group of teenage girls giggled and hid behind a curtain, peeking out after he was hauled past them. "Zack…"

"Bet you didn't know that did you?" Zack yanked him down a smaller hall. "He was going to get you into SOLDIER as his personal assistant. He said you had lots of potential and it would have been a waste to leave you as a grunt."

An old lady walked by, eyeing Cloud.

"Huh?"

"Yep. That way you'd have a few more years to get on your feet and you'd have passed the SOLDIER test without breaking a sweat." Zack stopped at a door and pushed it open. "Here we are."

Cloud stumbled to a halt staring at the form sleeping on the low cot. Sephiroth was laying still with his hands folded over his abdomen looking like a statue in a mausoleum. His white hair draped over the edge of the bed, the ends trailing the floor in a silver sweep.

Zack stepped closer, waving for Cloud, "Come on, he's better now."

Cloud stood frozen watching the soft rise and fall of his onetime hero's chest as he breathed.

"Hey, Cloud. Planet to Cloud. Come in Cloud." Zack grinned.

"Alive…he's alive." Cloud's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yeah." Zack reached down and touched Sephiroth's shoulder. "He was sleeping in the holy, getting all unJenovaed and something grabbed him. I grabbed hold of him and we both got pulled right out of the lifestream."

"Is he?" Cloud glanced around, looking for a weapon.

"He's fine." Zack waved for him to come closer again. "Come on, you said it yourself, it was Jenova. This is Seph. He's fine now."

"But…" Cloud's brow furrowed as he tried to think. He had said that, and… well it made sense…right? And Zack wouldn't lie to him, so… but it was Sephiroth. Sephiroth who destroyed Nibelheim. He had nearly killed the Planet… but what if it was Jenova? Wouldn't that make Sephiroth a victim? Perhaps the biggest victim, who not only had to witness the Planet almost dying, but had a front row seat, who kept getting dragged back, even from death? Normal people, even those who sinned the worst, got to just die and move on, but not Sephiroth. Jenova kept dragging him back to suffer more. But, what if he was wrong? What if it was all…

"Yo, Spike. Smoke's coming out your ears." Zack shook his head, laughing at him. "Let it go. He's fine."

"But what if he's…still Jenova?" Cloud took a hesitant step forward.

"Aer said he's fine." Zack looked innocent. "You believe her, don't you?"

Aeris? Aeris said Sephiroth was fine? Then wasn't he fine? But what if she'd just been saying that to reassure Zack? She hated for people to be upset and a small white lie to reassure an anxious Zack… she'd do that. Or what if she had been mistaken? What if she only thought Sephiroth was alright and he woke up still under Jenova's control? Or what if Zack had been wrong and it had been Sephiroth all along and not Jenova? An insane Sephiroth who would destroy everyone, believing he was doing it for the sake of his mother?

"Spike…"

"Leave him be, Zack." The voice was breathy and exhausted, but still had the smooth, calm timber he remembered. "He needs time."

Cloud's eyes snapped to Sephiroth's face, meeting tired green eyes. "Sephiroth…"

Sephiroth nodded wincing slightly as if the small movement was agonizing. "Strife."

"I…" Cloud stopped, unsure what he should say. "I..." He looked into the tired eyes. They were different from the last time he'd seen him. They were steadier, sharper, calmer. As he had all during the Jenova War he made up his mind in a flash. "I'm glad you're better."

A tired smile tugged at the former generals pale lips. "So am I." He then frowned slightly, "Strife, you don't know how sorry I am…"

"Talk about it later, 'kay?" Zack gave a dramatic shiver. "I'm freezing my balls off here."

"You're the one in a towel dripping water on the floor." Sephiroth closed his eyes, looking placidly smug.

"Hey, I wanted Spike to say hi." Zack shivered again.

"So you dragged him here straight from the bath?" The general's voice was fading. "Seems suspicious."

Cloud grinned as Zack pulled himself up looking affronted. He remembered this from his cadet days, Zack pulling some idiot stunt and Sephiroth calling him on it. As Zack blustered, Cloud felt himself relax.

"What if he had a heart attack! He could have just wandered in here, looking for the head and boom! dead on the floor." Zack put a dramatic hand over his heart. "I was just looking out for him."

Sephiroth didn't respond, his breath having returned to the deep even breathing of sleep.

Zack paused then turned to Cloud whispering, "Come on, let's get some clothes on."

Cloud nodded and stepped back into the hall. "He's alright?"

"Yeah, Aer said he just needed to rest." Zack ambled back up the hall, waving at the girls who were still peeking out the door.

Cloud nodded. The others would…wait Nanaki already knew. He had to know, but why hadn't he ever… "Zack, how did you get here?"

"Long story." Zack sauntered playfully along grinning at the startled, scandalized inhabitants.

Cloud crept behind him, hoping that Yuffie was far, far from this hall. He'd had enough shocks for the day. His nerves were feeling fagile. In the distance, he heard a distant clanging and wondered if it was the dinner bell. Nanaki had said something about food, so it was likely that Yuffie would be busy stuffing herself, leaving him to slink in peace to his clothes and get dressed before the situation got worse.

Zack went over to a door and brushed the heavy curtain door aside and gestured him in. "Come in. I've got some clothes you can borrow."

Cloud scuttled into the room. "Thanks."

Zack was already tossing things to him. "No problem. The pants might be a bit big."

Cloud shoved himself into them quickly rolling up the cuffs. The clanging in the distance hadn't stopped. He frowned, tipping his head, trying to hear better. He stomped his feet into a pair of boots.

"What's that?" Cloud nudged Zack, who was strapping on a couple of belts that settled low on his hips.

"Don't know." Zack ran a hand through his half dry hair and walked back out to the hall. "Never heard it before."

Cloud hurried after him then passed him. "Let's find Nanaki."

He rushed upwards noting that as he reached the upper levels, where the clanging could be heard clearly, the people were rushing around nervously. Children were being herded together and rushed downwards to the lower levels. Men and women were dashing around, carrying weapons.

"Nanaki!" Cloud raced up the stairs to Bugenhagen's house. "Nanaki!"

Yuffie ran out the door, dragging Cloud's Ultima blade with her. "It's the demons. They were just spotted coming this way." She handed him his sword. "I got it from the transport for you."

"Fuck." Zack snarled behind Cloud. "Seph. They're after Seph."

"What?!" Cloud turned to him. "Why…"

"When we got yanked out of the lifestream we landed in Nibelheim. There was a woman and she wanted Seph. Said something like "hello Jenova" and tried to give Seph a shot. When I grabbed him and ran, she set these demons on us."

Cloud nodded. "Okay. Got it." He turned to Yuffie. "Zack needs a sword."

"He may get one down stairs." Nanaki called from behind them. "We will need his assistance."

Cloud turned and nodded. "Okay. Let's get going."

He strode past Nanaki and down the stairs, heading for the lower level. Yuffie scampered after him. Zack grinned and nodded to the firecat.

"He really is something special isn't he." He trailed after his blond friend.

"Yes, he is." The huge cat paced downwards. "But he won't see that."

Cloud already had a Butterfly Edge Sword in his hands as they came down the last set of stairs. "Here, it's the best they have." He tossed the sword to Zack and turned to Nanaki. "The army is about a mile away and moving fast. Has anyone called for an evac?"

Nanaki nodded. "Cid said he's on his way. I have already sent the most vulnerable away on the transport you came in."

"Good." Cloud looked over at Zack then glanced worriedly at Yuffie, "I don't suppose that he…"

Zack shook his head, critically eyeing the already equipped materia of his sword, gauging the spells, their strength, and effectiveness. "He can barely stay awake for five minutes."

"Agreed." Nanaki nodded out the door towards the cloud of dust that was advancing towards the canyon. "He will need to be evacuated with the rest to the lower caverns."

People continued to rush around them as they made their way towards the Candle. People were gathering around the plateau carrying swords and strapping on armor. Young teens were gathering weapons into piles and rushing around handing out materia.

"Why didn't we see them sooner?" Yuffie bounced gripping her Conformer. "Shouldn't we have seen them from the air when we came in?"

"Think about it later." Cloud looked around at the hastily arming people. "Can they hold the walls?"

Nanaki nodded. "If we hold the slope up, they can hold the sides."

"There was a lightening elemental thing." Zack secured the scabbard of the sword to his back and accepted a mythril armlet from a passing teen. "Nasty thing. Might cause damage at long range."

"Okay." Cloud nodded. "We'll take the stairs. Yuffie, hang back and work at long distance. Move to where you're needed most, but keep an eye on the sky. I need to know when Cid arrives."

"Gotcha."

The first of the enemy appeared. A slender, snakelike creature that seemed to ooze darkness as it sniffed around the bottom of the cliff. A second later a carpet of them appeared.

"What is that?" Yuffie looked over the cliff. "It looks like a tiny land worm."

Cloud shrugged. "We'll give it a name later, after they're dead." He turned towards the stairs. "Let's mosey."

The mini land worms seemed easy enough to kill. By the time Cloud, Zack, and Nanaki reached their positions, the worms were blazing brightly from the burning oil that had been poured on them. The darkness they brought stayed and intensified, casting the area in slithering shadows and gloom. Figures moved around, slithering across the sand with a hiss, but nothing could be seen.

"What the… Is that a twin brain?" Zack peered ahead towards a line of oncoming monsters.

"It's that or a really messed up cactuar." Cloud muttered slashing at the squishy things.

They died in splashes of stinky ichor. In moments, there was a pile of them around the three defenders and Nanaki was shaking his paws disgustedly.

"They don't seem to have any purpose except to be annoying." Nanaki grimaced, killing the last few with a swing of his paw.

"Stay alert." Cloud shifted around trying to peer into the dark. "They didn't wipe out Costa del Sol and Gongaga with these things."

"Must have scared the crap out of the civilians though." Zack muttered wiping off his blade.

Yells came from above and they looked up in time to see shadowy forms swoop down at the people above them. Yuffie's Comformer whistled through the attack causing bodies to fall.

Zack kicked one, looking confused. "It looks like the bastard son of a skeeskee and a blugu."

"What kind of creatures are these?" Nanaki jumped aside as more fell, smashing in wet thunks around them.

Cloud shrugged. "Later. We've got company."

A large shape oozed into sight then stopped, lifting itself off the ground in a slow rippling motion. Small appendages extended outwards, touching the fallen monsters, and absorbing them with small bubbling sounds. It wobbled a few moments then reached out towards where Nanaki stood.

With a snarl, Nanaki struck at the creature then startled back with a yelp. "It burns."

"Acid?" Zack hacked an appendage that wavered towards him then danced back as more came his way.

"Get back." Cloud lifted his hand. "I have an idea."

Zack and Nanaki leapt back as Cloud activated a fire spell. For a moment, the rise towards the canyon was brightly lit as the monster burst into flame. Rank after rank of warped monsters stared back at them briefly before darkness once again settled.

"Holy." Zack breathed. "Did you see?"

"Concentrate on the stairs." Cloud took a deep breath. "So far fire seems to work well."

Zack nodded as the next wave of monsters hit. This time it wasn't so simple. The creatures looked like armored malboros from the north. Materia spells had no effect on them and it seemed he had to spend a lot of time hacking through armor before the monster fell. He had to leap and twist to avoid tentacles and to the side he could hear the clash of Cloud's sword and Nanaki's snarl. As more and more poured into the area, he kept moving, trying to keep track of where the monsters were, where the stairs he was 

supposed to defend were, and where Cloud and Nanaki fought. From above, he could hear the cries of the flying monsters and the answering calls from the people of the canyon. Smoke from burning monsters made visibility even more limited as he countered another tentacle attack and stumbled over a dead monster.

A crack of lightening struck the ground, illuminating the scene for a moment. The large lightening monster from Nibelheim lumbered into view with his purple dog friend and the masked freak with the chainsaw.

"Impossible." Nanaki breathed. "Not all at once…"

Zack glanced over at him, half surprised to find that they were both still standing at the stairs. Cloud had gotten ahead of them, and was cutting through a warped malboro.

"Spike, get back here." Zack yelled hacking through a malboroish torso. "You're too far ahead."

Cloud nodded, but his enemy kept pressing him hard. Cloud shifted his grip and took another swing, diving to the side as the blow glanced harmlessly away off armor and a tentacle swung toward him. He rolled back to his feet, farther away than before.

Zack hissed as he got struck by a flailing limb as his malboro died, only to be replaced by another. "Cloud! Get your spiky ass back here. Cloud!"

Cloud grunted as a lightning bolt exploded next to him, throwing him to the ground. More malboroish monsters slipped through the darkness pressing Zack and Nanaki back away from him.

"Where is he?"

Cloud stumbled to his feet, holding his sword defensively, waiting for the attack.

"Where is my son?"

He recognized Galian Beast as it lunged for him. Its teeth skittered across his sword as he swung it in an arc.

"I want my son." The voice was soft, almost pleasant. "Where is he?"

Hellmasker stumbled forward, revving up his chainsaw.

_Both? How in the name of the Planet did both get here?_ Cloud jumped back, but found that Death Gigas was already there, reaching out for him, catching him in its arms.

"I only want to see my son." A small, slender figure stepped out of the darkness. "I miss him."

_Dr. Cresent?_ Cloud kicked back, but the demon didn't flinch even though Cloud could plainly hear bones snapping from his blow. He twisted in its grip.

"My son." Lucrecia Crescent stopped in front of where Cloud was now held. "Tell me where he is."

"Cloud!" Zack yelled in the distance.

Nanaki's snarling roar of fury echoed around the canyon's walls.

"Just tell me where he is. That's all I want." Lucrecia reached forward, patting Galian on the head. "Is that too much to ask?"

Cloud desperately twisted, but the demon held him.

"Alright. Fine. If you won't tell me, I suppose one of your friends will." She sighed irritably and waved her hand to Death Gigas. "Crush the worm and get me a more talkative one."

Cloud gasped as the arms around him constricted, crushing into his chest. He couldn't breathe. He could feel his ribs strain and cartilage pop as they tightened more. One rib cracked, then another.

"Cloud! Hang on!" Zack yelled. "Cloud!"

Two more ribs shattered with sharp snaps sending shooting pain through his chest. The darkness around him seemed to be getting denser, more confusing. More ribs broke and everything went pitch dark.

"Cloud!"

Then there was the sharp sound of ringing metal and the pressure disappeared. Cloud fell to the ground, gasping and curling into a ball. He could hear the growling moan of Death Gigas and another sharp ring of a blade.

"My son. My beautiful son." Lucrecia cooed.

Cloud found himself hauled to his feet and tossed backwards. He caught a glimpse of sliver hair as he suddenly found himself in Zack's relieved arms. He blinked a few times before he could get his eyes to focus on the tall slender figure that now stood between him, Lucrecia and the last of Vincent's demons. Death Gigas lay sprawled on the ground in pieces as Sephiroth calmly wiped Mesamune's blade clean.

Nanaki prowled up to stand at Sephiroth's side as Zack backed up the stairs and set him down. "Okay, take it easy for a bit, Spike."

Cloud shook his head. "No… those…"

"Just let him handle it." Zack shook his head. "Catch your breath. There's plenty of bad guys to go around." He nodded to the looming figures that were shuffling out of the darkness.

"I am not your son." Sephiroth said as he kicked a piece of Death Gigas out of his way.

"Yes, you are." Lucrecia reached out one hand towards him. "Hojo, he took you from me. It was his fault, filling your head with his lies."

"Seph, we've got incoming." Zack yelled as the next wave of monsters came into range.

"I will have you." Lucrecia hissed. "Come to me now, or this village will be wiped off the surface of the Planet."

Sephiroth stepped back, delicately tracing his way through the field of monster parts. "How's Strife?"

"Living." Zack stepped down to the ground again as the malboros came up. "You?"

"I'm not going to last." Sephiroth hissed softly as he felt Zack come up next to him.

"Then you have done enough. Go back to Cloud." Nanaki stepped forward. "Take him up the stairs and send Yuffie down. She will have to fight down here with us."

"Any sign of that pilot friend of yours?" Zack tried to peer upwards but the gloom of the demons prevented any clear sight of the sky.

"I cannot tell." Nanaki lowered himself down to attack position as the enemy closed in.

Sephiroth scooped up Cloud. "I'll see about getting a potion for him and sending him back."

"No." Cloud twisted feebly in his arms. "I need to stay. I need to…"

"Go drink a potion, Spike." Zack stepped towards the monsters, "then get your ass back down here."

Sephiroth took the stairs in a couple of bounds setting him down at the top. People raced around brining arrows to the people that lined the canyon's clifftop, carrying vats of oil, and fighting off the last of the flying monsters. In the middle of the battle, Yuffie swung her conformer and bounced after the enemies.

Sephiroth sagged to the ground next to him shaking his head. "Sorry. I'm not going to be much help."

Cloud nodded slowly, blinking hard, feeling his eyes closing. " 's okay. Not goin' t' either." The world was getting hazy. In the distance he could hear a high pitched howling. He frowned to himself. It was familiar. Very familiar and not in a good way. His eyes popped open as it came to him.

He struggled to his feet, ignoring the scream of his body. "Yuffie! Yuffie! Get everyone out of the caves! The Gi! She's summoned the Gi!"

Sephiroth struggled to his feet and stood swaying next to him. "The Gi? The ancient demons?"

The people around swiveled to look at him and many instantly raced into the caverns. Yuffie stood blinking, trying to process Cloud and Sephiroth standing together in the middle of Cosmo Canyon and not trying to kill each other.

"The Gi! The Gi are attacking!"

Cloud stumbled towards the entrance a few steps and realized his Ultima Blade was still on the battlefield below. "Fuck."

People came pouring out of the caves, running madly towards the edge of the canyon. "The Gi! The Gi!"

Down below the malboros gathered closer to where Zack and Nanaki desperately held the stairs.

"Yuffie, get these people over to the other side of the plateau." Sephiroth yelled at the stunned ninja. "Set up a defense there."

The princess just stood looking shocked. A couple of teens that had been running weapons relayed the orders to the others and started herding the panicked escapees to the other side as wispy ghosts raced out of the cavern mouth and attacked.

Yuffie snapped out of it and twirled around heading for the ghosts a materia spell already forming around her as she ran. "Fire! Use fire to fight them!"

The arrows that had been turned to defending the wall arched into the onrushing specters. Cloud shuddered as the screams of the dying echoed around him. Below, he couldn't hear anything, not a growl, a curse, or the clang of a blade hitting the malboro-things armor. All he could hear was the steady thrum of his heart, which seemed to be getting louder…

No…not louder…closer…

He looked up to see the beauty of the Shera above him. Next to her a swarm of black helicopters with the Shinra logo on their sides were settling downwards as WRO soldiers leaned out sighting for materia attacks. Footsteps raced around the plateau as he sagged to the ground, falling on top of a sprawled, silver haired form.

00

Cid growled his way through his new passengers. While there were plenty of weeping, crying people, there seemed a lack of anyone sensible. All he wanted was a good idea of what the fuck had happened. Reeve was nearly hyperventilating on the communication's line, and Tifa was nearly burning the air with her constant calling.

"…so horrible.."

"…how we survived…"

"…by the grace of the Planet…"

"Oh Gawd! I'm gonna hurl."

That's what he'd been looking for. He wound through the frightened people tracking his prey by the sounds of miserable gagging. He closed in on the sick ninja as she sat against a wall with her eyes squeezed shut.

"Okay, brat. Where's Cloud and Nanaki." Cid stomped to a halt in front of her.

"Ulp." She gulped.

"Well?"

"Try…infirmary." She gulped a few more times.

Not wanting to see his precious ship defaced by ninja puke, Cid tromped quickly away winding through the crowded decks and down a few levels. People huddled in small groups, clutching each other and crying. A few were praying softly, thanking the Planet. Others curled in corners crying softly, clutching a item that they had salvaged from the wreck of Cosmo Canyon. Many didn't even have that, so just sat staring numbly at the walls or ceiling.

Cid kept his eyes away, needing to stay focused, needing to protect himself from the misery around him so he could do his job and get them all safely away from the area. He knew it would haunt him later, but that was later, when he got home to Shera and could let her sooth it all away. Now, he had to concentrate. He barged into the infirmary and glared around a second, then paused.

Cloud was laying on the floor with an oxygen mask over his face. Next to him, a tall man with spiky dark brown hair, lay wrapped in bandages. To the other side of the room, Sephiroth lay, looking paler than he'd ever seen him with Nanaki sprawled next to him covered in burns, bandages, and muck.

"Wha…?" He couldn't even curse. Cosmo Canyon was a wipe. He had a ship of desperate, homeless, hopeless people, and …

"Somebody want to explain this?" He finally managed to whisper.

The last person he wanted an explanation from opened his cat green eyes and looked at him tiredly. "Not really."

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Cid looked around for a weapon, cursing himself for not carrying his Venus Gospel around the ship for moments like this.

Sephiroth closed his eyes a moment, took a deep breath, and looked back at the captain. "I'm not sure. I was in the lifestream with the Ancient girl, Aerith. Something grabbed me and I woke up at Cosmo Canyon with Zack." He nodded towards the tall dark haired man that lay next to Cloud. "When the fighting started, I went to see if I could be of help. We got attacked by demons from above and the Gi from bellow. You can guess the rest."

"Got your asses kicked." Cid puffed a moment on his unlit cigarette missing the soft, comforting hit of nicotine, but he'd promised Shera he'd cut back.

"Yes." Sephiroth took a few more deep breaths. "But that wasn't what was interesting. When I pulled Cloud away from the demons, there was a woman. She kept calling herself my mother." He glanced over at the captain. "As you might guess, I'm not particularly trusting of people who claim to be my mother. She seemed to be in charge of the demons."

"A woman?" Cid frowned, thinking. "Jenova?"

"Have you taken a good look at Jenova?" Sephiroth snorted softly. "Did that thing look like a woman to you?"

"Point." Cid frowned. "Anything else?"

"The monsters that attacked the canyon." The ex-general frowned. "They were odd. There was something not quite right about them."

Cid chewed on his cig and nodded. "I got a glimpse."

Actually, he'd gotten more than a glimpse. He'd had to run down the canyon's stairs and haul Nanaki and the tall brunet up them. It hadn't been one of the happier times in his life. It had gotten progressively unhappier when he realized that he had been the only standing fighter capable of fending off the demons, and the demons had realized that.

Had he really seen both Hellmasker and Galian Beast at the same time?

Sephiroth drifted off again, and Cid sized up the situation. One maniacal general who wanted to crush the world for his mother was passed out on his floor. Check. Cloud, the only one to be able to fight the maniacal general with any true hope of success, was unconscious nearby. Check. Nanaki, the one who could make sense of this situation, was taking a prolonged catnap while looking like someone had tried to use a steamroller on him. Check. One mystery man, who might be Cloud's long dead friend, was also on the floor looking like road kill. Check.

Cid shook his head and decided to go back to the bridge and smoke two cigarettes in honor of the occasion. He was sure Shera would understand. She might even take up the hobby with him. He still had to deal with Reeve and Tifa. She at least would be happy to hear that Cloud was alive and with any luck they'd be too distracted with the sudden reappearance of Sephiroth to mind the very scanty information he now had.

He walked up the halls of the Shera chewing thoughtfully on his cig. The Gi… He hadn't been there when the others had faced them, but he did remember hearing Nanaki talking about them with Aerith. They'd been some kind of enemy of Nanaki's people that wouldn't rest peacefully in the lifestream but stayed behind to haunt the caves bellow the canyon. He did remember the demon at the Temple of the Ancients and Aeris's comment that it had resembled the master of the Gi, Nattak.

He turned into the meeting room and flung himself down in a chair, switching on the com system. "Reeve? You there?"

Reeve appeared. "Cid, any news?"

On the screen Reeve looked tense and rumpled. Behind him, Tifa stood gripping the back of the chair and looking anxious.

"The kid looks like he took a few hard hits." Cid reached in his pocket and got his lighter. "He's out cold."

Tifa's eyes got wider. "Will he…"

Cid shrugged. "He looks okay for now, but we're running out of the fucking potions and ether, so we've got to wait till we land to heal him properly."

"Nanaki? Yuffie?" Reeve took a deep breath. "Are they?"

"Yuffie's barfing on my deck and Nanaki…" Cid took a long drag. "He looks pretty much like the kid."

"It's good to hear Yuffie is alright." Tifa tried to smile, but it wobbled away miserably.

"We've got a bigger fucking problem." Cid took a couple long drags on his cig. "When I was pulling people's asses on board, I got a couple extra."

"Cid…" Reeve frowned.

"That friend of Cloud's. The one that got himself killed trying to save the kid from Hojo…" Cid nodded. "Well, he's here now and he brought a friend."

Tifa tipped her head. "Zack?"

"Yep." Cid took a couple more long hits, wishing his nerves would calm down. "You might want to sit your ass down for the next though."

"Aeris? Is it Aeris?" Tifa leaned forward eagerly.

"No. Think the other side. Think the last person you want creeping around while demons are running about." Cid felt his hands grabbing another cigarette and as he snubbed out the first, he lit and puffed on the second.

"Chaos." Tifa's face got tense.

"Keep guessing." Puff. Puff. Puff.

"Weis? Omega? Jenova? President Shinra?" Reeve sighed. "Cid, we have a lot of people who we don't want to come back from the lifestream. You'll have to narrow it down."

"Try this. I have Sephiroth's ass passed out in the infirmary." Cid nodded towards the door. "And he's the one who gave me the low down on the situation."

"Oh Planet…" Tifa backed away.

"You don't look too shaken up, Cid." Reeve eyed in carefully.

"I'm going with the flow on this till I hit ground." Cid puffed. "Then I fully intend to have a fucking full blown breakdown."

"What else did Sephiroth have to say?" Reeve was pressing buttons on his side, probably calling for reinforcements.

"That there was some bitch that was in control of the demons and she said she was his mother." Cid reached for a third cigarette. "He wasn't feeling all warm and trusting so didn't go for the family reunion shit."

Reeve blinked. "Jenova?"

"Nope. I asked him that too. Got an interesting reply." Cid ground out his second cig and lit the third. "Said that Jenova wasn't a woman and he called the bitch a thing too."

Reeve sat back in his seat thoughtfully. "Interesting."

"He also said something else." Cid puffed a few times. "Said that they got caught between the demons and the Gi."

"The Gi?" Tifa bit her lip. "The ghosts under the canyon?"

"Yep. I never saw those fuckers before, so I can't tell." Cid shrugged. "They looked kind of odd though. Kinda rotted and shit."

Reeve nodded. "Alright. Anything else? I need to get my people working on this."

"Yeah." Cid leaned forward. "I saw something. At least I thought I saw something." He snubbed out his cig. "I fucking saw Hellmasker and Galian Beast at the same time. Anyone want to tell me how Vince can get his skinny ass to do that?"

Reeve sat up. "He can't. The transformation is singular. He can only assume one form at a time."

Tifa smiled. "It isn't him!" She gave Reeve a hug. "It isn't him. I knew it! I knew Vincent wouldn't…"

"We can't be sure." Reeve shook his head frowning. "Those demons are a part of him. If they were there then he was there too. Did you see him, Cid?"

Cid shook his head. "No. Just those fucking demons."

"Okay. Keep an eye on Sephiroth. When you land, I'll have a security team in place to handle him." Reeve stood up. "I'll also get medical teams in place to handle the wounded."

Tifa nodded. "I have the emergency shelters all set and waiting. You can tell the people that hot food and comfy beds are ready for them."

Cid got to his feet. "Okay." He paused a moment. "Reeve, get word to Shera and tell her to get her ass and the rest of Rocket Town on the Highwind. I want them out of there."

Reeve nodded. "I'll tell her."

Reeve watched as the vidscreen blanked. Tifa frowned at him and turned away.

"You act like you want Vincent to be doing this." She walked towards the door. "Even when evidence shows it can't be him, you keep insisting."

"I have to be careful." Reeve gathered a few papers up and followed her out. "I want Vincent to be innocent. You won't believe how much I pray our friend is not responsible for this, but I have to look at all the possibilities."

"Have you considered the possibility that he's not to blame?" Tifa continued to march ahead of him. "Have you considered that Vincent wouldn't do these things? That he would rather die than harm innocent people like this? That possibly there is something else going on?"

"Yes, and I hope they are true." Reeve looked down at the papers he was carrying. "I hope wherever he is, Vincent is safe and away from all this, but I also have to look at the facts. We have sightings of Galian Beast, Hellmasker, and Death Gigas in all the villages that have been destroyed. Vincent is the only one who possesses those forms. As far as anyone can tell, he is the one responsible for these attacks."

"And the woman?" Tifa turned and faced him. "What about her? You've had reports of her, too."

"I don't know. She might be helping him, or she might be the one controlling him." Reeve shook his head. "I just don't know, Tifa. I have to be cautious."

Tifa turned away from him and walked down the hall. "Fine, be cautious, but remember," She turned and faced him. "I haven't forgotten who was the traitor."

She walked away, leaving him standing in the hall.

00

Tseng rushed down the hall. Not that anyone would have known he was rushing. He made it a point of keeping up certain appearances, and the image of a nearly unflappable Turk Leader was one of them. For him, rushing meant a slightly increased pace, and a refusal to look longingly at the door on the executive level that had once been his. When he reached Rufus's office, he knocked three sharp knocks. Rufus, wanting to take a break from having his office destroyed hadn't replaced his secretary yet, so there was no one to announce him.

"Come." He heard Rufus yell.

Tseng opened the door and stepped in. "Sir. We just got word that the Sherra is arriving in Edge in twenty minutes."

Rufus, perched uncomfortably on a folding lawn chair and doing his paperwork on a TV tray, nodded. "That was fast."

"They have General Sephiroth on board." Tseng handed Rufus the transcripts of the conversation Rude and Elena had "accidentally" overheard while making routine adjustments to the communications satellites.

Rufus read them quickly and nodded. "Get him. I don't want him in WRO hands."

"This might cause problems, sir."

Rufus nodded. "Not if handled right. We do still have those containment cells Hojo used to use, don't we? I'll just be friendly and offer them. You just be friendly and escort him there." He reached for the phone.

Tseng stood quietly at attention and waited as his boss called Reeve smothering the man in charm, helpfulness, and logic.

"…are already in place. The cells were designed just for situations like this." Rufus leaned back in his lawn chair.

"Oh, no problem. Really." He waved a hand as if brushing something aside. "I must admit, this is purely selfish. I think I'd sleep better at night knowing that he was in a secure lockdown."

"Yes, of course. I agree completely. Having WRO men as guards would be necessary. I really don't have the manpower to handle it." Rufus smiled at the ceiling, leaning his head back against the seat. "After all, Tseng, Reno, Rude, and Elena are all busy working on finding Valentine. I really don't have anyone else."

Tseng wondered if Reeve still believed that. The man was pathetically easy to fool sometimes.

"Fine, fine. It's all arranged then. I'll have one of my Turks meet you at the airport and we'll have this situation under control." Rufus sighed. "I for one will be much happier not dreaming of getting a seven foot sword through my back."

A few more pleasantries later and Rufus hung up. "Get him here. Once he's here have our men in WRO take the guard shifts. I want this under Shinra control. Also, we are going to have a meeting with WRO about our findings in our search for Valentine. "

"How much shall we share?" Tseng glanced at the battered book that now sat on a folding conference table.

"Everything." Rufus smiled grimly. "I want to see how Avalanche reacts."

"I'll see to it." Tseng bowed and left.

He grit his teeth and stopped at the Turk floor to gather Rude and Elena. A cloud of thick, noxious smoke blinded him a second as the elevator doors opened, but he bravely squinted his eyes and proceeded. The jumble of wreckage that half blocked the hall was easily stepped around. Dim figures scuttled 

through the hall, darting from doorway, to wreckage, to… Tseng felt a headache coming on… overturned vending machine.

A shadowy form leapt from a doorway towards him. Tseng recognized it instantly as Reno, but also instantly decided to not recognize his subordinate. The roundhouse kick that he landed on Reno's chest sent the other flying back through the door he'd come from. Tseng instantly jumped to continue the attack, feeling a happy sense of relaxation as he slammed his fist into Reno's face. It wasn't often he got to pound on the redhead with no lingering suspicions about him stooping to payback. He also managed to slam Reno's head against a desk and kick him into a wall with enough force to elicit a pained grunt.

"Yo, boss…it's me… sorry…" Reno finally gasped.

His fun over, Tseng let Reno go. "Just what are you doing?"

"Uh…. Training?" Reno hobbled slowly over. "You know…uh… working in low light conditions…"

Tseng refused to get drawn into the senseless argument he could see looming. "Fine. Get this cleaned up." He stepped outside the office. "Rude! Elena! Report!"

He could hear two locks disengage and saw two heads peer cautiously out of their offices. Seeing that their boss was indeed calling for them, Rude and Elena scrambled out and stood at attention in the smoke filled hall.

"We are needed at the airport to meet the Shera." Tseng turned briskly away and strode down the hall, gracefully avoiding the destroyed office furniture that littered the area.

"Hey, how about me?" Reno trotted after them.

"Clean this up." Tseng hit the elevator button and was pleased when it instantly opened.

"But…but…"

He stepped into the elevator with Rude and Elena following at his heels. "Now. Reno."

The elevator door closed and Tseng pulled out his phone.

"Maintenance."

"This is Tseng. Do you still have the furniture from the preschool?" Tseng smiled.

Rude and Elena glanced at each other and looked nervous.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. We need replacements in the Administrative Research Department. Use that." Tseng felt a warm glow deep in his heart.

Tseng's happy mood lasted all the way to the airport. He puttered merrily on his PSH arranging Sephiroth's accommodations and contacting various people to make sure he had appropriate, Shinra friendly guards. He pulled out his laptop, the first one he'd had that survived for over a week, and made a few notations. He answered e-mail, sent forms and requests off to various departments, and ordered supplies. By the time he stepped out of the car to the sight of refugees streaming off the Shera, he was at peace with the world.

He nodded to a contingent of WRO troops. "We'll be assisting them." He glanced over at his operatives. "Do you understand?"

Rude and Elena nodded. Assisting meant being friendly, helpful, and letting Tseng handle the manipulating.

They approached and Tseng stepped forward. "I'm Tseng. I was asked to show you to the secure facility that we have set up for General Sephiroth."

The man nodded nervously. "Yes sir. We were told to expect you." He glanced over at the Shera, jittering. "We will handle the transportation."

"Of course." Tseng's voice was smooth and soothing. "We won't be in your way." He waved for the man to go ahead. "Just let us know when you have him secure and we'll proceed."

The man gripped his gun tighter. "Yeah… sure."

The last of the frightened, ragged people were herded into busses and ground transports and were taken away. The tarmac was empty for a few moments then ambulances approached. Stretchers were brought down the Shera's loading ramp and loaded.

"Okay, move out." The WRO officer's voice wavered, but he motioned his men forward.

"Boss." Rude whispered.

"I know. Keep an eye on him. If he gets trigger happy, take him down." Tseng stepped back. "Everything else is in place. We just need to get Sephiroth out of here in one piece."

Rude nodded slightly and went back to pretending to be a wall. Elena looked around, keeping track of the airport personnel that were rushing around the Shera. Tseng watched as one of the stretchers was transferred to the nervous officer's care and the men slowly walked back.

Sephiroth was strapped to the stretcher either unconscious or drugged. A thin blanket covered him from mid chest down. Tseng could see that he wasn't dressed in his usual leather battle gear, but in a simple cotton shirt.

The men loaded Sephiroth into a transport and piled in. The officer came around and gave them a nod, his courage restored after seeing his enemy was immobile.

"Lead the way." He gave them all a small look of contempt. "After we get there. WRO will no longer need your services."

Tseng gave the man a professional smile. "Your people should already be in place when we arrive. I see no reason to linger."

He turned and nodded to Rude and Elena. They smoothly returned to their car and waited while the officer strutted around a few more minutes yelling orders to the driver.

"Are you sure he's safe in there." Elena watched the man swing into the truck and wave for them to go.

"Probably not." Tseng tapped Rude's shoulder, telling him to drive. "Best if we hurry."

They zipped through the streets with the truck tailing them. At the edge of Edge, close to where the old city used to be, they turned down an alley and stopped by a large building. Tseng got out and waved for the truck to go up to a large cargo door.

"What's the meaning of this!" The officer yelled. "We are supposed to go to a security lockdown, not a warehouse."

"This is the place. Please proceed inside." Tseng walked over to a panel on the wall, keying in a code. "This is security level alpha. It was created to hold monsters too dangerous for normal facilities. Due to more radical factions, it was disguised so that militants would not find the facility and free the monsters onto the general public."

The man blustered a few moments, but when the door lifted, showing the high tech, gleaming interior filled with WRO personnel, he grunted and nodded for the driver to go in. Tseng turned and went back to the car.

"Drive to the other entrance." He settled into the seat. "We'll let him have his moment."

Rude drove down the alley, turned right and went down two blocks, passing decrepit warehouses. He took another right, hit a button and went into the small parking garage that opened its gate for them. He drove to the lowest level, hit another button and went through what had seemed like a large maintenance hatch down to a long slender tunnel. They arrived in a small yellow lit parking area and stepped out of the car.

Tseng walked quickly through the gleaming, brightly lit halls till he reached the main security room. A couple of WRO soldiers were sitting in the seats watching as Sephiroth was carried down a hall.

"Any problems?" Tseng watched as the officer, on another screen, ranted at his men.

"No, sir." The men saluted as the officer in charge stepped forward. "He was transferred to us without incident."

"Good. See that he is secured and that a physician is called. I want a full report on my desk in an hour." Tseng nodded.

"Yes, sir." The man made a few notes. "President Shinra has already sent a physician over. The man is waiting."

"Good." Tseng watched a few more minutes. "Keep me posted. I want to know when he wakes up."

"Yes, sir."

Tseng walked back to the car, pulling out his PHS. "Sir, this is Tseng."

"Has he been transferred?" Rufus sounded like he was in his car.

"Yes, no problems, sir."

"Fine. Come to WRO headquarters. Reeve wants to discuss Cosmo Canyon's attack and I think that we should share out findings."

"Of course, sir." Tseng settled into the seat and motioned for Rude to drive.

When Tseng arrived at the meeting, the room was full. A battered looking Cloud was standing in a corner talking with an equally battered looking Zack. Reeve was hovering next to Yuffie, who in turn was hovering over a tired looking Nanaki. Tifa and Barret were standing in a corner looking like they were arguing. Cid Highwind was stretched out in a chair, smoking and talking to Rufus. Tseng went to stand at his boss's shoulder, waving Rude and Elena to stand guard outside.

"Fuck that. I know what I saw. Both of them, and I'm pretty sure Death Gigas bits and pieces were scattered around the ground." Highwind tossed a glare over his shoulder to where Barret and Tifa were still arguing. "There's no way, no fucking way Vince could do that."

Rufus nodded. "I see."

Highwind puffed a few aggravated puffs. "Reeve's got you looking for him, doesn't he."

Rufus nodded.

"Well, just remember, Reeve's only one part of Avalanche. If anything happens to Vince, we're all going to be fucking curious." Cid gave Reeve, who looked up a narrowed glare.

Reeve glanced quickly away.

Tseng looked around again gauging the interactions. The once united front of Avalanche was showing cracks. Zack and Cloud's conference to the side was looking more and more like the two were separating themselves from the main group. Reeve, who was usually the most social and pleasant of the group, was looking unsure and nervous. Tifa and Barret, the two original members of Avalanche, were still in the middle of a heated, though at the moment quiet, argument. Yuffie was avoiding looking at anyone, and Nanaki was, under all this wounds, looking upset.

"I assure you, we have no interest in bringing any harm to Mr. Valentine." Rufus shook his head sadly. "From what we have found in our investigations, we are quite concerned that he might be the first victim of this situation."

Cid sighed. "I think so too. Vince is a sorry fucker, but he's as good a guy as you're likely to find." He took a long drag on his cigarette. "The only way those demons would be fucking around with everything would be over his dead body." He shook his head. "I mean that literally."

"Yes. I understand." Rufus got up. "We will do what we can, but I fear it might be too late for Mr. Valentine."

Cid nodded. "Probably. But I won't write him off. He's a hard bastard to kill. If there's any way he's alive. He's alive."

Rufus stepped back and walked around the table to find a seat. Reeve noticing that, cleared his throat and started waving for attention.

"Let's get started." He walked to the head of the table, opposite Rufus. "We are all here, so settle down and let's figure out what's going on."

With a last glare, Tifa walked around the table and sat down next to Cloud. Zack took a seat next to her, grinning over to Cloud. Barret slumped angrily into a chair across from them with Nanaki beside him. Yuffie, still worrying over the firecat perched nervously next to him. Cid grabbed a seat and pulled it over to the corner by the ashtray. Tseng stood behind Rufus.

"Okay. First, I want to say that we are all thankful that Nanaki and many of his people are safely here with us today." Reeve looked over to the big cat. "I also want to say how sorry we are that not all of the people of Cosmo Canyon escaped."

Tifa nodded. "We are so sorry Nanaki. If we had only known…"

"There was no way to know Tifa." Nanaki nodded his thanks slowly. "Or even if we had known that it would have changed the outcome." He turned to Cid. "I want to thank you, my friend. If it had not been for you and your bravery, many more would have died."

Cid puffed. "Just watching your back. You'd do the same if it had been Rocket Town."

"Speaking of which, I have heard from Shera, and she and the people of Rocket Town are already on the Highwind and on their way to Junon." Reeve gave a weak smile. "Once they are there, we should consider if evacuating Corel and The Gold Saucer would be wise."

"My folk won't go." Barret rumbled. "Said that no demon trash are going to force them out of their homes."

Reeve sighed. "We can't force them. However, Dio has already shut down the park and has gathered his personnel into the upper sections. He's willing to have them relocated as soon as possible."

Cid nodded. "As soon as the Highwind is ready again, I'll send her over."

"We'll extend another invitation to Corel to join them." Reeve gave Barret another small smile which was ignored.

"On to other business then." Reeve glanced over to Cloud and Zack. "It seems that we have to welcome back Cloud's friend Zack Fair."

Zack grinned happily at everyone. "Hi. It's great to be alive again. Not that death was all that bad."

Cloud leaned back in his chair and smiled slightly at him.

"We also have Sephiroth back as well." Reeve motioned to Rufus. "Thanks to President Shinra, he is now being held in a secure vault, but we will have to deal with him."

"There's nothing to deal with." Zack frowned. "Jenova's the one that did all that. Seph's innocent."

"Bullshit." Barret snarled. "I saw that crazy fucker."

"It wasn't him." Cloud stated. "It was Jenova."

"You're just saying that because of him." Barret jerked his head at Zack. "But who the fuck was the ass that tried to destroy the Planet? Who killed all those people?"

"He was being controlled by Jenova." Zack leaned forward, his hands flat on the table.

"Yeah, sure." Barret's voice became sulky and he shot a mean look at Tifa. "Like I believe that."

Reeve took a deep breath. "As of now, Sephiroth seems to be sleeping. He is in a containment cell and a doctor has looked him over. It will take awhile for the test results to come back."

Barret grumbled.

"I think that in the case of Sephiroth, we should hold judgment until he is awake and we can assess his condition." Nanaki glanced over to Barret. "While there is ample evidence that Sephiroth was a threat in the past and may indeed be a threat in the future, we should proceed with caution. A hasty judgment at this time might prove to be a cause for regret in the future."

Barret grumbled softer, but relaxed slightly in his chair.

"Agreed." Reeve seemed happy to put the matter aside. "We have other problems to deal with. As Barret pointed out, we still have the unsolved issue of what happened to Vincent." He looked down the table to where Rufus sat placidly watching the show.

Rufus smiled. "Well, we have found a few rather interesting things." He motioned for Tseng to bring a box that had been sitting in the corner of the room. "First, Reno and Rude tracked the last known movements of Mr. Valentine and found a few things that might answer some questions."

He opened the box and carefully pulled out Vincent's metallic glove. "This was left in a room in North Corel. The proprietor said that Vincent had rented a room for three nights. When the man checked the room after the third night, he found this." Rufus put the glove down on the table. "He also found this." He reached in the box and placed Cerberus next to the glove.

"Shit." Cid breathed. "He wouldn't leave those."

Tifa looked at them a moment, then looked away, blinking hard.

"Vinnie… oh, Vinnie…" Yuffie buried her face in Nanaki's shoulder and started weeping.

Reeve swallowed, looking down at the table. "I see."

Cloud reached over and picked up the glove. It was tarnished and dusty. "How long ago?"

"About two days before the attack on Costa del Sol." Rufus reached into the box, pulled out a stack of papers then handed the box to Tseng. "We guess that he was in the area to visit Dr. Crescent and didn't return."

Cloud looked up. "I saw her. At Comso Canyon. She was there."

"You mean the babe with the demons?" Zack picked up Cerberus appreciating the workmanship.

"Yes. I saw her. She kept asking for Sephiroth. Saying she wanted her son." Cloud shook his head. "She even ordered the demons to attack me."

Reeve nodded. "That would confirm the reports I've had about a woman being in charge of the demons."

"But isn't Dr. Crescent…" Tifa glanced at Vincent's glove. "I mean, she helped us with Omega. Vincent worshiped her, why would she harm him?"

"We might have an answer to that." Rufus took a small sheaf of papers from the top of the stack and passed the pile around the table for everyone to take a copy. "We also searched Vincent's old apartment and his things. In the locked ammunition box you gave us, we found this." He reached into a pocket and pulled out an old tattered book. "While I have to admit I was somewhat skeptical about its contents at first, recent events have changed my mind considerably."

Tifa frowned as she flipped through the pages. "It looks like a diary."

"It is a diary of sorts." Rufus placed the book down. "It's Hojo's diary."

Barret shoved his papers away from him. "I ain't reading that."

"It is really quite interesting. In it, he states that it was Dr. Crescent who performed the atrocities to Vincent. He also claims the reason for this is because she wanted to summon Jenova, Chaos, and Omega to control them and give her power."

"No." Tifa shook her head. "She loved him."

"I have to say that evidence shows different." Rufus tapped the papers. "He claims that Dr. Crescent deliberately infected Vincent with the Chaos gene and gave him mind altering drugs to keep him under control, hoping that she would be able to control Chaos through him."

Reeve flipped through the papers. "We'll have to read this to understand better."

"Yes, but before we go off to our corners, I would like to point out two other pieces of information." Rufus flipped through the papers. "First, you may wish to note that this diary was written, hand written, by Hojo and that in it he clearly indicates that he was alive and well after the Omega incident. If you turn to the highlighted paragraph on page one hundred and seventeen…"

Cloud flipped around to the page, started reading, turned pale, and shook his head. Zack frowned, quickly turned to the page.

"Hey, Spike." Zack reached behind Tifa and caught his shoulder. "Spike. It's okay. Take deep breaths. It's okay."

"I'm…" Cloud shook, his world shifting uncertainly around him.

"Well, yeah, but don't sweat it. You're you, you just have a twin brother that you shared everything with but never met." Zack gave his shoulder a shake. "It's fine. You're still you."

Reeve looked at the passage.

_I hate drinking. The whole idea of cloning Sephiroth in the attempt to see if I could get one right –as in not psychotically butchering villages- was conceived while I was drinking. -I will have to privately admit that Cloud, who I term a failure, was actually the only success of that mindless idea of mine. Take note that he is, when not trying to kill me, everything that a father would be proud of. And I am proud of him. But don't tell him I said that, he's delicate and needs to hang on to the belief that he's the original Cloud Strife.- The notion of making a digital duplicate of myself was an idea I found at the bottom of a bottle of rum while on the beach of Costa del Sol. –I should say, since I am in the mood to explain these things, that I blame a programming error for the whole Deepground incident. I never did get the hang of those things much past word processing, so I had a so-called expert do it for me. What a mistake that was. Who was to know that all he copied was the worst and most broken parts of my psyche? If it helps, there was some poetic justice to the whole affair. He was one of the first people to disappear in Junon. I only hope that Weis got to snicker at him a bit before he got tossed in for demon chow.- The depressed and suicidal act of injecting Jenova cells into myself was also the result of an all night binge of vodka and tequila. Why do I keep doing it? It's one of the mysteries of being a man, I suppose._

"He obviously wrote this after the Omega incident." Rufus set the papers on the table. "He also states something else. Turn to page one hundred and forty two."

Avalanche flipped quickly to the page.

_I have heard the failure and his dimwitted companions worrying about Vincent when he disappears. The little brat ninja even thinks that he returns to the mansion and his coffin. He wouldn't. He despises that place as much as I do. I've always known exactly where he is when he's not flamboyantly saving the world. He's there, in the Ancient's city. It's the place that he fits the best._

_Oh, he loves Wutai, but there is always a barrier between him and that place. For him, it's a nice place to visit and unwind, but it isn't his home. The City of the Ancients is his home. As I watched him fingering the dead soil, I could almost hear the click as his jagged edges slipped into place in that city, like the last puzzle piece snapping into place in a complex pattern._

_If you ever wondered, I only partially lied to Sephiroth. It wasn't his mother who was the Ancient_.

_Looking back at all that happened, I should never have left Vincent to sleep in Nibelhiem. I should have brought him to that city to recover from her perversions. It would have been better for him. Perhaps there, those demons would have left him in peace and he could have regained his strength. I can only claim that my own mind was in too many shambles to think clearly. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. He was conscious and would have killed me instantly if I dared to try to move him._

"It seems Hojo believes that Vincent would go to The City of the Ancients." Reeve frowned. "He also seems to believe…"

"That Mr. Valentine was an Ancient." Rufus nodded. "It seems so. I am looking for the health records on Mr. Valentine from when he first joined the Turks to see if there was any indication of that. I'll keep you informed of what I find."

"But if Vinnie is dead. It hardly matters." Yuffie wiped her eyes.

"It would still be a good place to start looking for him." Reeve nodded. "I would rather hope he is alive, than to believe the worst at this point."

"In locating Mr. Valentine, we might also be able to gain valuable insight into Dr. Crescent and the demons." Rufus nodded towards the book. "In here, Hojo claims that the demons were a side product of his attempt to remove Chaos from Vincent's body. He even mentions a way to capture a demon into a mako crystal and have it become a summon."

Nanaki lifted his head. "That… that would explain why we didn't see the army approach."

"She has an army in her pocket." Zack sat back shaking his head. "No warning. Just one person traveling around. When she wants to attack, it only takes a moment and boom…an instant army of demons."

"They were summons." Cloud murmured. "I couldn't place the monsters. I kept trying to, but they just didn't look familiar."

"It would also explain why no matter how many we killed, we kept getting more." Zach looked disgusted. "She only needed to resummon them."

"Quite a trick." Rufus sat down.

"We will need to look into this." Reeve tapped the papers with his finger tips. "We should check The City of Ancients to see if we can locate Vincent."

"We should also look for Hojo." Tifa was still reading. "If this is true, he might have some information about how to deal with Dr. Crescent or the demons."

"You really want to talk to that crazy fucker?" Barret shook his head. "We all know what he did. We saw it. Nanaki and Cloud lived it. For all we know, he might be helping the bitch do all this. He was married to her."

Nanaki nodded. "I have to agree. While Sephiroth may still be cleared of wrong-doing, we have more than enough reason to distrust Hojo. He, more than his son, has done more to harm the Planet than can be forgiven."

"Yeah. And no one said he was ever taken over by Jenova." Yuffie nodded.

"Trusted or not, he may still be a valuable source of information." Reeve set the papers down.

"I offer the services of the Turks to assist you in locating him." Rufus waved a hand towards Tseng. "They have, I should point out, done an excellent job of finding this information."

Reeve nodded, looking around. When no objections were said, he smiled. "Thank you. I accept."

Rufus stood. "Good. Now, if you don't mind. I need to go."

Tseng bowed to Avalanche and stepped aside as Rufus waved casually and sailed out of the room. He trailed after his boss until they were settled into the car.

"That was really quite interesting." Rufus settled back into the upholstery. "Yes, quite interesting."

"Tensions did seem a bit high." Tseng sat next to him.

"We also have all the cards now." Rufus smiled. "Sephiroth is in our care. WRO is busy with the demon threat. We will be looking for both Hojo and Valentine. Yes, everything is working out very well."

"Shall I send Reno and Rude to The City of the Ancients?" Tseng pulled out his PHS, making a few notations.

"No. I want you and Elena to go there." Rufus smiled slightly. "If Valentine is there, this needs to be handled with delicacy."

00

Bone Village had never impressed Tseng. It looked like an open grave at the best of times. With the influx of ragged refugees clogging the streets, it looked worse. The streets were covered in filth, cast off food wrappers, human excrement, and pathetic, yet vaguely threatening beggars. The normal sounds of inebriated archaeologists and their diggers was replaced with the caterwauling of urchins fighting in the streets, and the sharp sound of men brawling in the alleyways. The original inhabitants hustled down the streets, shooting angry, distrustful glances at their new, unwanted neighbors and brushing by the panhandlers rudely.

Elena stood at his shoulder trying to breathe through her mouth. "This place hasn't improved with age."

Tseng shifted the carry bag he held over his shoulder. "Keep an eye open for Davies. I need to talk to him."

They waded through the streets, searching for a house. It had taken hours of research in the old records to find Hojo's address in Bone Village, but Reno had finally managed it.

"Here it is." Tseng stepped to the door and knocked.

"He's not there." Davies came up and stood behind them. "He came through here a few months ago, but we haven't seen him since."

Tseng turned and looked at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The village head man shrugged. "Priorities. Hojo's one of us first. If it comes down to you or him, he's always going to win."

Tseng narrowed his eyes threateningly. "That is not part of our understanding."

"My understanding was with Veld, not you." Davies turned and walked away. "And that was only because Vincent asked."

"Wait, have you seen him? Vincent?" Elena called to Davies back.

Davies paused then shook his head. "No."

He walked away as Tseng growled.

"Why do Veld's people always turn?" Tseng snarled.

Elena shrugged. "Let's go in, maybe we'll find something."

The lock was easy enough to pick and they were inside in a moment. The house was dark and had the smell of abandonment. Tseng flicked on a light switch, and wasn't surprised when nothing happened. He set the bag down next to the door and stepped farther into the house.

"Okay, let's get to work. Elena, search the kitchen and dining area. I'll look in the bathroom and at the bedroom area." Tseng reached in his pocket and pulled out a flashlight.

Elena scurried off and started searching through the kitchen. Tseng headed into the bathroom. He had just leaned down picking something out of the drain when he heard Elena yelp.

He drew a gun and stepped to the side of the door, peering around.

"Wha' the fuck are you doin' here?" A rough voice asked.

Barret.

Tseng stepped out of the bathroom. "We could ask you the same question Wallace."

"I'm looking for Vampie and I saw you two come into town." Barret growled, eyeing the gun.

"I was not aware that you were searching for Mr. Valentine." Tseng put the gun away, but remained tense.

Elena retreated to his side.

"We all got things to do. I'm here to find Vampie and haul his bloodsucking, demon butt back to WRO." Barret glanced around the house. "This his house or somthin'?"

"No. This house is one of Hojo's past residences. We were trying to see if he had recently spent time here." Tseng motioned around him. "It doesn't seem likely, but we have to exhaust all possibilities."

Barret shrugged. "Jus' stay outa my way."

The big man lumbered to the door. "I'm going to find him and I don't need no Shinra Turks gettin' in my way."

Tseng watched him leave then passed the small thing he'd pulled out of the drain to Elena. "They were here."

It was a small scrap of blood red cloth.

"Do you think?"

"He did say that he wished he'd left Vincent in the Ancient's city." Tseng stepped out the door. "I think it is likely that if Vincent was hurt, Hojo would take him there."

Elena tried to suppress an excited grin. "Then we have to go to the city?"

"Yes, that is what we will have to do." Tseng picked up the bag and rummaged around in it for a moment. "Here." He handed her a small Lunar Harp. "You play. I'll deal with the malldancers."

They got through the woods easily, even with Elena standing in the middle of the path gaping at the trees. Tseng blasted the malldancers with a few bolt spells, and the thing by the stairs was barely an afterthought.

"Wow." Elena breathed. "I never got to really look at this place before."

"It ain't nothin' special." Barret came up behind them, glaring. "I tol' you to stay outa my way."

"Hey!" Elena turned. "You're the one who's following us."

"I ain't followin' no Shinra." Barret stomped past. "Jus' leave me alone."

Tseng watched him trudge into the city. "I wonder if Reeve knows he's here?"

"No." Yuffie's voice answered him from behind a tree. She looked around at them then checked to make sure Barret was gone. "Barret got angry. Said that we were all getting sucked back into Shinra's lies and left." She waved towards where Barret had disappeared. "I got worried. He's had it in for Vinnie for years and… I just thought someone needed to keep an eye on him."

Tseng nodded. "Well, welcome to our search."

Yuffie grinned. "Sure thing. You'll probably need my help." She posed dramatically, a giggle lurking in her eyes. "I am the world's greatest ninja and the single white rose of Wutai."

Tseng arched an eyebrow. "Really? Amazing. I guess my mother's rose bush finally died then. Too bad. It really had beautiful roses." He turned and walked off. "They'd bloom every summer and were the color of sea foam."

"Not that kind of rose…" Yuffie raced after him. "This is a metaphor…"

"Metaphor…that's a big word for such a tiny ninja." Tseng murmured in his native tongue, walking calmly along the road.

Elena glanced around and started after the two as they entered the city bickering softly in Wutaian.

Please review!


	5. Hunting Ghosts

AN: Sometimes when I'm writing, I find a song that really fits the mood of what I'm writing about and inspires me. While I hate songfics with a fiery passion and stories that rely too heavily on musical inspiration, I do like to know if something inspired the author. In this case, I was inspired by Matchbox 20's _The Mad Season_. At first, I only thought of Hojo when I listened to the song then realized that it fit Vincent too, and maybe that little fact was important to their relationship. I keep tumbling it around in my head finding different facets to look at while contemplating what's going to happen. While it doesn't influence the storyline, it does have echoes in the Vincent and Hojo's interactions with each other in some small way.

Now a Monster

Chapter 5: Hunting Ghosts

* * *

Hojo

I woke up a couple of times, hearing the murmur of the Planet change. It seemed cranky about something and was bitching to itself. Vincent didn't even twitch. He'd snuggled against me, wrapping his arms around my waist, laying on my right side like a heavy blanket, and burying his face against my neck. His breath ghosted over my collar bone in soft, deep whispers. I was relieved to know that he wasn't crying still or having nightmares. Instead, he was relaxed and at peace, even the beloved cape had been discarded to the side.

I knew sleeping here would be good for him.

I looked sleepily around our cave, enjoying the feel of being so close to him, before nuzzling his hair and trying to get back to sleep. It seemed like the old days, before Lucrecia, Gast, and Jenova, one of those lazy, mornings when I'd wake up far too early and tried to not to wake him. Vincent would be sleeping soundly while I peered around the darkness wondering if I would ever get back to sleep or if I should give up and just get out of bed. Vincent and I would be tangled together in a knot of blankets, limbs, and sheets, making me wonder if I could get out without inflicting my insomnia on him.

I closed my eyes and in a few moments was back to sleep. I dreamed of rain and sunshine, summer sun and winter snow, the dry heat of the desert and the lush softness of Mideel. In short, my mind wandered with the Planet. Occasionally, I would accidentally bump into something else, an old memory, a wisp of trailing emotion, but mostly all I was aware of was the wash of seasons and Vincent's slight movements as he slept.

I woke again to hear soft sounds coming from someplace. It sounded like voices and I was startled at first. Who was there? Lucrecia? Gast? No, no, Gast was dead. I killed him myself, so who was it? I quivered, straining to hear, wondering what I would do if we were found. I hadn't brought many weapons, only a few grenades for sealing the cave and an old shovel. What would I do if they found us? How would I protect Vincent? At the rate my body rejected Jenova, all traces of her were probably gone from my system, so I didn't even have her extremely doubtful aid if someone broke in to harm him.

My mind helpfully started supplying all sorts of horrors: Vincent being tortured, Vincent being dragged back by Lucrecia to be forced into being a demon, Vincent being shot as a traitor when he was found with me, Vincent crying, Vincent in pain, Vincent locked in a cage, frightened… Oh Planet, what if they did to him what they did to Sephiroth and butchered him with a sword?

I cursed myself for not thinking of this beforehand. We were vulnerable. Vincent was in danger because I was, once again, a fool. Maybe I should dig my way out and lure them off. Maybe if I could hide and he was found he wouldn't be damned by association. Maybe I could sneak up behind the intruders and hit them with the shovel. I couldn't let them harm Vincent.

He was now spooned behind me, holding me in his arms, with his face in my hair. I must have woken him slightly with my panicked whimpers. His body shifted against mine, and I could feel him lift his head.

"Go back to sleep, love." His voice was a bit slurred and husky, his arms tightening around me, drawing me back to fit more snuggly against his body. "Too early."

I was surprised when I felt a kiss brush against my neck. I wanted to twist around to face him to see if he knew it was me or if he thought it was Lucrecia, but he was already asleep. Whatever the sound was, it went away. I listened for a bit, and when it didn't return, I followed his advice and settled down to go back to sleep.

I wasn't asleep long. I doubt more than an hour or so when I heard voices from just outside. I strained to hear what they said, but they were too far off. After awhile, I settled back down, telling myself not to worry. I'd hidden there for years and nothing had found me. It had been months, possibly a year or two since I returned here with Vincent. There was nothing to worry about.

Maybe if I said that enough times I would believe it.

"You followin' me? I tol' you don' follow me." A rough voice yelled close to our hiding place.

"We were here first!" Another, female voice called from the distance. "And you're not supposed to be here. I'm telling Reeve!"

"What the fuck you doin' with them Shinra!" The first voice bellowed. "You turnin' against your friends."

"I'm finding Vinnie." The female voice sounded young.

"You leave that crazy vamp alone." There was the sound of rocks sliding as the first voice came closer. I could recognize the voice now, Avalanche's former leader, Barret Wallace. "He'd kill you sure."

"You leave Vinnie alone." Young, Wutaian, and she called Vincent, Vinnie. It had to be the ninja brat.

Still, at least there was someone who was willing to stand up for Vincent. Maybe it wasn't all that bad. Maybe I could dig out and lure the ninja brat into finding… finding Vincent and have him hauled out of here to get executed by WRO and Avalanche as the brat whined in the background that they were 

treating her Vinnie bad? To have Barret shove her aside and use that gun arm of his to riddle Vincent with bullets?

"Stay out of the way Wallace."

I cringed back into Vincent. Tseng. Tseng was outside. Tseng would kill Vincent. I had no doubts about it. Tseng would pull Vincent out of the cave, make him kneel on the dirt of the Ancient's cavern, and put two quick bullets into Vincent's head. I'd seen Tseng kill other people like that, and then he'd turn away before Vincent's body hit the ground without even a flicker of remorse.

"Don' fuckin' tell me what ta do, Shinra." Barret growled, his Corel accent deepening. "I ain't no Shinra, an' I ain't afraid a ya."

Fool. He should be afraid. The only reason he lived was because some of Avalanche might protest his sudden death. If he pushed Tseng too far, he'd find himself dead, in a shallow grave in the middle of nowhere, and little Marlene would only know that daddy disappeared one day on his way home one day. Any questions asked would lead to a group of harried, desk bound Turks who hadn't been out of the office for months, and multitudes of dead ends. I wondered just how far Reeve would take the investigation if that did happen. Reeve probably still remembered the hundreds of people who Barret killed when he blew up those mako reactors, dousing the inhabitants around the reactors with boiling mako.

Save the Planet, Kill the Populace… Gast and Fuhito would have loved him.

The voices drifted off into incomprehensibility and I lay blinking in the darkness. Tseng… If it had been Barret, or the rest of Avalanche, I would have snuggled back down and continued my snooze, but they had sent Tseng. He wouldn't just glance around and head home. He'd search, carefully, and sooner or later, he'd find evidence of an explosion in a place no explosion should have taken place. He wouldn't be happy until he could report back to Rufus that every avenue of inquiry had been thoroughly searched. No stone unturned. Leaves and twigs all neatly numbered and accounted for. All enemies erased.

I had to do something. I had failed Vincent miserably in the past. I was not going to fail him now. I glanced around the cave. I had a shovel, but that would be useless against Tseng. I could probably take out the ninja brat with it, but Tseng? No. I had a blanket that was presently wrapped around Vincent's legs. Not exactly helpful. I had a few grenades. Better, at least they were weaponry, but anyone who had ever seen a Turk work knew they were relatively ineffective. Turks just had too many enhancements, not to mention body armor. I also had a mattress which was useless, a couple of pillows which were equally useless, and joy of joys, I had Vincent's cape. While the cape was the epitome of poor fashion choices, it was hardly handy in a situation like this.

Wait… the cape…

I wiggled away from Vincent and picked up the cape. It was torn, dirty, and far too bulky for me, but… I fingered the high collar. My hair was long and just as black as Vincent's. All I would need… I carefully reached over and delicately unwrapped Vincent's headband. It had come slightly loose as he'd slept and 

it was easy enough to slip off and quickly wrap around my own head. I slipped the cape on and fluffed my hair out, letting it straggle in a thick mat down my back. I was a bit shorter than Vincent, I still had the limp I had acquired so many years ago, and anyone up close would instantly see that I was definitely not Vincent, but from a distance it would work. I could lure them off, make them think that Vincent was racing out of the city and into the canyons. Tseng, with proof that Vincent was not in the city, would abandon the search here and head out, probably towards Icicle. Barret would follow suit. It would work. It had to work. I couldn't fail him again.

I silently crept towards the entrance, glancing back to make sure Vincent was still asleep. He'd done as he'd done on many mornings back in our apartment when I had had to get up before him, and had flopped over to the still warm area I'd been sleeping in, pigging the mattress and soaking up the heat my body had left behind. He looked, except for the long hair, just as he had so long ago. I wanted to crawl back and playfully fight for my spot. Back then, those small tussles had usually resulted in an early morning romp. I doubted it would end that way now.

I listened carefully, waiting. I heard nothing, but I wanted to be sure. The area had to be clear for me to dig out. Sounds of digging would alert Tseng instantly that something was off kilter and he'd be waiting for me with a drawn gun. I sat, ear pressed to a crack in the rocks waiting and waiting. After what I guessed to be a few hours of silence, I started digging, careful to make sure the dirt landed in soft hushes to the side of the cavern. I occasionally would hit a rock, which caused a clang, but every time I checked Vincent was still sleeping, hopefully dreaming along with the Planet.

It was night when I finally emerged with just a hint of dawn lightening the air outside the entrance to this section of the caverns. I wiggled free of the last of the debris and slipped the shovel back into the cavern for the day Vincent chose to come back out. While I planned to lure them off and come right back, I'd learned painfully to that the worst was usually the norm, so he might need that shovel. I then carefully started to shift rocks and dirt till I had recovered the hole and disguise my emergence as much as I possibly could. If the worst did happen, it might buy Vincent precious time to defend himself from them.

I trotted through the caverns that made up this section of the city and wound my way towards the path that led down from the forest. I could wait there till I spotted them then let them catch a glimpse of me. With any luck they'd follow me back into the shell house that led up to the cliffs and I could lead them away.

The sun was just appearing over the edge of the hillside when they came down the path. Tseng, as usual for him, was up early and had dragged Elena along with him. The brat ninja was trailing behind them, her whines about her lack of sleep echoing down into the city. They had almost reached the bottom when I noticed Barret Wallace's lumbering form behind them on the path.

Good. I had a full house for my little performance.

I waited a few more minutes then darted out with a dramatic swirl of cape and raced between the buildings.

"Vinnie! Vinnie!" The brat ninja yelled. I could hear her running ahead of the others.

"Wait!" Tseng yelled and I could hear Elena gasp.

I had their attention and I had a commanding lead. I needed to stay ahead of them to keep my illusion intact. I ran up a few streets and dove through a shattered shell house to another street, feeling grateful that I had tagged along with Vincent years ago and knew this city.

"Vinnie! Wait. We're here to help."

Her voice was a bit too distant, so I reappeared and fluttered the cape a bit more before darting through the streets toward the shell that led to the cliff face. The brat ninja was in the lead with Elena and Tseng a few paces behind her.

"Don't get too far ahead." Elena sounded winded.

Really, Tseng should train his Turks better. Vincent used to drag his reluctant Turks out to a track once a month for an evaluation. If they couldn't run a mile under certain time, jump, climb walls, and weave through an obstacle course they got yanked out of the field and "sent on leave without pay" till they managed the course. Of course "sent on leave without pay" meant they were shoved into a boot camp that made the worst hazing rumors about Soldier that were whispered in hushed frightened voices in Shinra's back halls sound like a pleasant vacation in the tropics. I remember one incentive boosting exercise that Veld had instituted that involved something closely resembling a cattle prod, an obstacle course from hell, and a row of shallow graves at the side to inspire the happy participants to find their higher power.

Have I mentioned that Veld was a nasty bastard? No? How remiss of me.

I quickly climbed my way up through the shell's interior, pausing now and again to make sure that they could see my cape. The brat ninja always shrieked for her Vinnie to stop, Tseng growled a few warnings to the brat, and Elena continued to pant for breath.

I was glad for my lead when I came to the cliff. I have never been a huge fan of rock climbing, and with my limp, I was less than coordinated. Since I was pretending to be Vincent, I didn't need them watching me clumsily faltering my clumsy way up. It would have instantly destroyed my act to have them see "Vincent" scrambling about like a klutz.

I was kind enough to wait for them to enter the cavern once I got to the top. I wanted them to see me exit the city and head off towards Icicle. They took their time too. I was just starting to wonder if I'd lost them when I heard their voices coming closer.

"Fuck you Shinra, I don' gotta do wha' ya say."

Ah, Barret had caught up and by the sound of his voice, he was well and truly irritated.

"Stay out of the way Wallace." Tseng's voice was icy.

"You aren't supposed to be here." The brat ninja yelled. "You were supposed to stay go to Corel and see if anyone wanted to evacuate."

"Dey ain't goin' ta leave." Barret growled, "An' don' tell me what I gotta do, traitor."

"Did you even ask them? Did you? Huh?" The brat ninja sounded angry.

"An' wha' if I didn't? Whatcha goin' ta do?"

There was a startled yelp and Tseng snarled. "Leave her alone Wallace."

"Fuckin' Shinra."

Lovely. Just lovely. I should have just stayed in the cave and let them kill each other. I crouched at the top of the cliff listening to their argument. After a few moments I decided that Wallace was doomed. Tseng's voice had gotten the calm, indifferent tone that he used when he'd decided that someone was a walking dead man and anything he said was just unimportant noise. I could tell that Elena, by her sudden silence had also realized this and was probably hanging back behind Tseng looking blankly distant. The ninja brat and Barret snarled a few more curses at each other for awhile. Bored of waiting, I started slipping across the top of the cliff towards the exit when they appeared.

"Vinnie!"

Brat.

I slithered past the worst part and tried to leap as gracefully as possible out the cavern's exit. Outside was a slender path that wove down the steep side of the mountain into the valley leading to Icicle. I could easily get down ahead of them then head out into the canyons. A few cape flutters heading towards Icicle and I'd be able to circle back to Vincent.

I managed to get out the exit and even got in a small dramatic cape flourish when I heard a commotion behind me. Feet scuffled, something electronic sparked, and something heavy thudded.

"No! Don't!"

"Wallace!"

"Watch out!"

I was turning to see what the commotion was when heard a sharp snapping sound and I felt something hit me hard. It took a second to feel sharp darts of pain and recognize the sound as gun fire. The path beneath my feet tipped crazily.

"Vinnie!"

"Damn you, Wallace!"

I stumbled a second then fell, tumbling off the path, down into the white abyss bellow rocks and snow swirling up in a blur to meet me.

Vincent

The large rock landing on my foot woke me. I looked around puzzled. A cave? What was I doing here? How did I end up in a cave? And where was my chick? I could have sworn that he'd been with me. I sat rubbing my sore foot and looking around. I was in a small cave sitting on a mattress with a shabby pillow and an old blanket. A shovel was laying on the floor and lurking in the corner was a large pile of dirt. But no gangling chocobo chick.

Hadn't I just been in Midgar? Why wasn't I home? What was going on? Hadn't I just been in… wait…

…wait…

Nibelheim.

Hojo and I had gone to Nibelheim and…

…and…

I bowed my head.

My chick. My poor, silly, innocent chick… What had they done? What had I done? Had I really…

…stood on the scaffolding of the Sister Ray cannon and shot my chick?

I cringed remembering the look in his eyes as I shot him, the surprise, the hurt, the terrible loss. I had done that, I had believed…

…believed that Lucrecia…

My stomach lurched as my memory snapped back fully into place.

I had believed.

After all those months trapped in that mako tube watching her and Gast perform their tests as the pain in my chest clawed through me making me mentally scream to be allowed to die. After the horror of being dragged begging and pleading out of the lifestream and back to my broken, defiled body as Chaos snickered in my mind. Even after I had become her slave, tearing through innocent people, listening to them scream as their life poured over my hands in a red wave. I had believed that she was my love, my courageous, suffering darling. When Hojo had come to get me out of Junon's caves, I had still believed that he was the evil one and she had been the wronged innocent. I had believed that he'd come to take me back to a cage to torture me.

What had I done?

I heard rocks rattling and I looked up. I'd wallow in self pity later. I had to find where Hojo was and what Lucrecia was doing. She had already come after me; it would only be a matter of time before she went after him. My chick knew too much. The knowledge he'd gained from working with me, Sephiroth, and mako would be a threat to her. I couldn't guess exactly what she wanted, but I knew the broad outlines of it. She wanted control and she had an army of demons to give her that control. Having my chick run around with all his knowledge, no matter how broken his mind was, was one thing she could not tolerate.

I picked up the shovel and dug my way out to find myself in the back caverns of the City of the Ancients. I looked around the small cave a moment before I left, looking for anything that might be useful, but only found a few old grenades which were probably more of a hazard to the user that to anyone the user wanted to blow up. They were what Veld used to call Wutaian Poppers. They had a short life before their explosive charge became unstable resulting in a rather disturbing tendency to explode unexpectedly. I was lucky that one hadn't discharged while I'd been sleeping in the cave.

I slipped out of the opening and decided to get to Bone Village. With any luck, Davies would still be around and he'd catch me up on any recent events. He might even be able to give me an idea where my chick had scampered off to.

I jogged down the paths towards the trail up towards the forest when I spotted Yuffie racing through the streets.

"Vinnie! Vinnie! Wait up!"

I was standing in a small passage between two wrecked shell houses and she zipped by without even noticing me. I was just about the call after her when Tseng and Elena flashed by.

"Yuffie, wait up." Elena panted.

Disgraceful. If this was the level that Turks had sunken to, no wonder Sephiroth had been able to rampage about in Shinra Tower unscathed. What happened to discipline? What happened to Turks being the best of the best? What happened to pride? Dedication? Basic fitness? Veld was probably spinning in his grave, if he had one.

Shaking my head, I started to step out and hastily slipped back when Barret came thundering down the street.

"Fuckin' Shinra. Fuckin' vamp." He wheezed as he went by. "I can take 'im out. Show that punk that I can do it."

Vamp. That would be me. And Barret was going to take me out? Hardly, even unarmed I could easily defeat him. He was slow, clumsy and relied too heavily on a shoddy piece of outdated hardware for all his offensive abilities, and being the not too bright man's man, he scoffed at defense.

I trailed after them wondering why they believed that they were chasing me when they had passed me in the alley. It wasn't until we got to the conch shell that had the staircase up to one of the main back exits of the city did I understand. Someone had my cape and was running ahead of them.

I hadn't even noticed that I wasn't wearing it. I followed after, curious about who was pretending to be me. Whoever it was, was keeping ahead of everyone and only occasionally appearing. I wondered if Tseng had noticed that he was being led. Whoever was doing this was deliberately luring them onwards. I hung back as Barret caught up with Yuffie, Tseng, and Elena, listening to the conversation.

While I admit that I have never been a great Barret supporter, I have to say he was acting particularly stupid as he stood there snarling empty threats and insults. Yuffie was in tears of anger and frustration. Tseng had obviously decided to dispose of Barret into the next sewer he located. Elena stood at Tseng's shoulder looking edgy and nervous, picking up on her partner's murderous mood.

After a few more minutes of me wondering why I ever got involved with these people, they continued after their quarry, who was probably waiting impatiently for them to stop bickering and get back to being led about.

He was waiting for them at the top of the cliff that led out towards the ice canyons. When he leapt out of the cavern I saw the curve of high cheekbone and one deep set eye. It was my chick. But what was he doing running around in my cape and headband? I started slipping back into the shell behind us. I knew a passage that would lead to the bottom of the path that Hojo was going down. I could head him off and get a few answers.

Yuffie's startled gasp and the sound of Barret powering up his gun arm made me turn back around. Barret had raised his mechanical arm and slammed it into Tseng sending the Turk sprawling. Elena jumped to his side dithering between helping her partner and stopping Barret.

Yuffie sprang in front of Barret as he raised his gun arm and aimed at Hojo. "No! Don't!"

"Wallace!" Tseng struggled to his feet, lurching slightly as Elena tried to help him up and only got in the way. He saw the direction that Barret was aiming and yelled a warning, "Watch out!"

Hojo was nearly out of the cavern but Barret's shot still hit. I saw him stumble then disappear into the snow. I'd kill Barret for that. No one touched what was mine and any loyalty I felt towards Barret had ended the instant he'd aimed his gun arm at Hojo. That he'd had the nerve to shoot… I'd make sure he suffered.

It didn't matter that he thought it had been me. I wished it had been. The bullets would have been little more than annoyances. If it had been me, I would have leapt down and disemboweled the fool. If it had been me, I would have only made a small mental note to myself to get the bullets removed the next time I found a doctor. If it had been me, I might have even forgiven him for his stupidity. But it hadn't been me.

"Vinnie!" Yuffie was scrambling away, up the cracked cliff wall.

Barret snorted and preened. "See, I could handle it. I told Strife that I could."

"Fool." I could barely talk I was so angry. "I should kill you now for that."

Barret, Tseng, and Elena whipped around to stare at me. They did a fine job of gaping a few seconds and I once again had a few doubts about the state of the modern day Turks. Still, I had better things to do than express my disappointment or kill the muscle bound moron. My chick was hurt and I needed to get to him fast. Still, I didn't need Barret on my trail.

Barret only aided my decision to get a quick bit of revenge. He tried to swing the gun arm towards me, but he forgot something. Most people do since I have always been thin and since…since Lucrecia I've added the adjective delicate to my description as well. But with or without the gauntlet, I still possessed more strength than any normal man could claim. The same strength that let Soldiers leap gracefully for hundreds of feet in the air and hack apart large buildings had flowed through my body longer than Soldier had even existed. As he brought his arm around, I reached forward and grasped it by its barrel. It only took a sharp, strong twist and the snapping of artificial connections and the arm came free in my hand. Barret screamed and fell to the ground clutching the stump of his arm.

"Run, Barret." I tossed the now useless arm at Tseng's feet and raced back down the shell's twisting stairs. "I'll be after you, and maybe if you entertain me enough, I'll make your death quick."

"Valentine, wait!" Tseng called after me.

I kept running. I shot down a side passage and instantly turned again into a smaller tunnel. The dirt had piled up into fine drifts along the walls of the passages and puffed beneath my feet in powder soft clouds. If Tseng really wanted to track me, I was sure he'd find it easy.

I found the passage I wanted, a long straight one that angled down sharply. There was more dirt here, but it was heavier and coarser, having come in directly from the outside, probably carried in spring melts and heavy storms. At the end of the passage, I could see the soft glow of natural light signaling the exit. I ran towards it, half listening for pursuit, but nothing seemed to be following me.

Perhaps Barret was still causing problems. I should have grabbed Elena's gun and killed him. I was sure that with a small explanation I could have convinced the other members of Avalanche of the necessity of his death. Tifa might get upset, and Cloud would overanalyze it, but I doubted Reeve would mind too much and Yuffie after witnessing him shooting what appeared to be me, would probably cheer. That only left Cid and Nanaki, who would probably listen to Yuffie's tale and my explanation and come to a thoughtful conclusion.

When I got to the exit, I checked around me then took off to the left. It was only a short distance between this point and the foot of the path Hojo had been on. Having seen him stagger and fall, I doubted that he was still on the path, so I started paralleling the path as I jogged along the base of the mountain's cliff-like face. With any luck, Hojo had fallen and slipped downward on the steep incline to rest at the foot of the mountain.

"Valentine!" I looked up to see Tseng standing at the cavern mouth pointing downwards with a bouncing Yuffie at his side.

I waved back and made my way quickly towards the spot. I could see the red of my cloak against the snow. He'd landed a few feet from the foot of the mountain, caught on a snow drift with a long streak of startling red leading downward to his resting place. The snow beneath him was already showing the same staining.

"Hojo?" I brushed the snow away from his face. _My poor hatchling. I'll kill him for this. I swear it_.

He looked pale, but his eyes fluttered open. " 'idn' werk."

I pulled him gently off the drift and into my arms to check for injuries. He'd changed a bit since the last time I saw him. The grey hair, the gaunt, tired features had been replaced with a wild tangle of black, silky tresses and a smooth, youthful glow. He looked like he had so long ago when we first walked into the mansion at Nibelheim… except for the wounds. The bullets had hit his shoulder, side, and hip. He'd probably been shielded from the majority of the bullets by the rock of the entrance. Only his left side had been clipped.

"Valentine, meet us up front." Tseng called down.

"Be careful, Vinnie." Yuffie yelled. "And don't worry. I'll take care of Barret for you."

I rather liked Yuffie. She really did mean well and her enthusiasm was often charming… annoying, undoubtedly, but charming. I knew one day she'd be a great woman, but today was just not that day.

I looked up, considered a moment, then waved back an affirmative. It would keep them from interfering while I got my chick out of the area if they were all tamely waiting for me to arrive at a nonexistent meeting. After Barret's little sojourn into ridding the world of evil (me apparently), I wasn't feeling trusting. Hojo had a reputation, one that I'd inadvertently helped create, and I doubted that he'd be greeted with cries of sympathy and concern.

Tseng disappeared back into the cavern pulling along a waving Yuffie, and I lifted my chick up. "We're going."

" "ey're afta ya." Hojo's voice was slurry. He was losing blood.

"That's okay. I'll deal with it."

I cradled him against me and went back towards the caverns. Instead of going back in the tunnel I'd emerged from, I hurried over a small rise and down into a narrow ravine. It gave me enough shelter and cover to stride rapidly around a small, snow decked hill without leaving any tracks. I then leapt up to the far side and ran lightly across a small expanse to climb up a boulder strewn hillside to reach another tunnel that lead down into the heart of a series of corridors that would take me to the rooms that Banning had once used. His former layer had little appeal but the small corridor that cut down into the 

bedrock and out to the path would be perfect. I could then get up the path and into the forest before Tseng and the others caught up.

" 'incen'?"

"We're almost there."

" 'eng. 'ach ou' 'or 'eng." His voice was fading and he was looking more pale.

"I'll watch out for Tseng." I found the corridor going down and raced for it. _Hang on, love. I'll get you someplace safe. _

" 'eeve 'ent d' b'at." He was only barely conscious.

I didn't try to translate that. As much practice as I had had translating his incoherent and most often drunken ramblings, I couldn't make that one out. I just nodded and held him closer wishing I knew what modifications they'd made to him. "Don't worry about it. We'll be in the village soon."

The corridor that led to the path was difficult to traverse even in the best of circumstances and carrying a mumbling, half aware Hojo didn't make it any easier. By the time we reached the brush covered exit, I was scraped and feeling achy from crouching down and running for so long through a narrow passage, but most importantly, he hadn't been harmed further. I kept low and slipped up to the edge of the path, looking for Tseng and the others. I didn't see them, so I quickly sprinted up the path and past the startled stair monster. The malldancers were swirling about anxiously and when I appeared they lined up for a fight.

"I don't have time for this." I slipped behind a rock.

A wave of sharp brown leaves slashed overhead. I snarled softly. If I was by myself, I could count on my stamina and healing ability to get me through to the forest. As it was, I had few choices. I had to stay ahead of Tseng, who would only wait a short time before deciding to come find me. I also had to get Hojo to medical care.

I glanced over the rock and saw a few more malldancers had joined the attackers. They spotted me peering at them and I had to duck another attack. I could feel the rock shudder at the impact. Maybe if I prodded them to attack as a group then, when they were reenergizing, run for the forest. At worst, I would take a hit, but I could still get Hojo to safety.

I set his feet down and scooped up a rock. Malldancers weren't the most brilliant of monsters, and I could easily guess that even a relatively harmless attack would still be considered an attack to be met with force. I looked over the rock then when they were all paying attention, lobbed the stone at the ones in the back. As predicted, they all attacked. I ducked again, scooped Hojo back up and as soon as the rock stopped shuddering, ran.

The malldancers swirled in agitation as I raced past them, leaping shattered tree stumps and slithering down ledges till I was nearly at the forest. I heard their attack hissing across the sand towards me and jumped forward curling myself around Hojo.

I felt the leaves cut through me as I landed a few paces away from the safety of the greenery. Another hiss of another attack raced towards me and I stumbled quickly inside falling onto the soft grass. The trees growled softly rustling their branches as I lay at Hojo's side trying to breath.

"You're a mess." Someone's feet appeared in front of my face.

I had expected the outraged growl of the trees, but not a snippy comment. I looked up half wondering if the trees had learned a new, not so welcome, skill. Instead I found myself looking into a well known face.

"Veld?"

"Hey, not everyone gets to be eternally young." He grinned kneeling down next to me.

"I thought you were dead." I forced myself to sit up feeling what seemed to be hundreds of razor like cuts down my back.

Veld shrugged. He looked older with graying hair and tired lines around his mouth and eyes, but he had remained lithe, strong, and rock steady. I remembered him from before, when I'd awoken during the whole half-baked Avalanche crisis. He'd looked older, more worn, and unhappier back then. Now as he leaned over me with a well known smirk, I smirked back.

Planet, I had missed him.

"Contacts. They got me clear." He offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet.

I nodded. "Help me get Hojo out. Barret shot him."

Veld hesitated. "You sure? He's changed, Vincent. He's not the man he was."

I staggered a second before catching my balance. The malldancer's attack must have done some damage to the muscles in my back. I was having trouble not wobbling. "I'll deal with that later. He needs medical attention now."

"Okay. He's your problem." Veld steadied me and then picked up Hojo. "Let's move before we get company. Unlike you, I don't feel the need to be resurrected."

I nodded and stumbled after him. It took me a moment to realize something odd. "Why aren't the trees attacking you?"

"Hm?" Veld stepped over some roots. "Well, I've had some time, so we got to talking."

"You talk to trees…" I let the statement hang.

"You did it, so why can't I?" He got to the tunnel heading for the village. "We worked out a deal. I tell them about what you are up to, and I get to come in here whenever I want." He walked to the other end and turned, waiting for me. "After talking to Heidegger for years, talking to a bunch of trees is a step up."

I nodded, unwilling to argue that point. The very brief introduction I'd had to Heidegger hadn't filled me with grand expectations about his mental agility, much less his conversational abilities. On the other hand, I'd seen Veld politic and network his way into even the most remote, paranoid factions that lurked in the backwaters of the planet. When he used it, Veld did have charm, deadly, deceptive charm. The poor trees probably never had a chance.

"You found them." Davies was waiting for us and quickly stepped forward to lend me a shoulder.

"The rest will be back soon." Veld nodded and continued walking. "We need to get them hid."

It only took a few moments and we were tucked safely in the back of an old skull that had a gift store in the front selling small figurines crafted from fossilized bone. The nearly overpowering scent of cinnamon and apples wafted back along with soft chiming music. The clerk, a smiling young woman in a quaint apron, only nodded, closed the door and went off to extol the virtues of a wind chime made of teeth.

Hojo lay on one small cot and I sprawled on the floor watching as a doctor fussed at my chick's wounds. While Hojo was still drifting in the grey limbo of semi-consciousness, the doctor removed the bullets and began stitching up the wounds. Bettina hovered nearby arranging materia and a hot meal while Davies shrugged out of his shirt, which was a bit blood stained, and got into another.

"I'll deal with Tseng and his group." Davies gave himself a quick inspection. "What do you think, a bit of guarded helpfulness?"

Veld nodded from where he was sitting in a chair drinking coffee. "Yeah, maybe something about seeing Vincent heading out of town. You could also mutter something about him buying a chocobo lure."

"We could mention him looking for a boat. A few fishermen left for Junon about an hour ago." Bettina bustled over with a washcloth and a basin of water for me. "That might keep them busy."

"Good." Veld settled back in his chair with a small smirk. "Why not give him both? Tseng loves to poke. Let's give him a lot to poke at. Get some of the boys to mention Vincent being down at the dock looking for a boat." He nodded to Davies. "You could stonewall them again and let Cooper chirp the information about the chocobo lure. I'll even make Tseng's life more interesting and get a few people in Icicle to swear that they saw someone remarkably like Vincent come through town, while a few people in Junon will declare they saw him get off an old boat down at the harbor. That'll keep him entertained for weeks." His grin got wider as he looked at my now bloody, dirty cloak and picked up my headband that had been tossed aside by the doctor. "We can even give him some solid proof that Vincent can be two places at once." He turned the grin to me. "I don't suppose we could have some of that long, pretty hair of yours, hmmm?"

Trust Veld to know how to drive Tseng crazy.

* * *

Thank you for reviewing! I love hearing from all of you.


	6. Tracks

Now a Monster

Chapter 6: Tracks

* * *

**Tseng**

"I am at peace." Tseng watched as Elena and Yuffie raced up the main street of Icicle dragging snowboards behind them. "I am calm." He told himself, trying to ignore the fact that Reno had called five minutes ago telling him that he had found Valentine's trail in Junon, complete with some of Vincent's hair that had been caught on a post that he leaned against while waiting for his companion to disembark. "I am at one with the world." He repeated his mantra trying to ignore the fact that he'd just found Valentine's hair on a pillowcase and he had found the remnants of the red cloak in a trash bin in the back of the village inn. "I am…"

Elena flung herself down the snowboard run with a shriek of laughter.

"All is going as it should." Tseng chanted, ignoring Yuffie's battle cry as she launched herself off the top of the ramp. "I am centered and in control."

It wasn't working. Nothing was working.

He trusted Reno's opinion that he had found Valentine's hair in Junon. The information that Reno had gathered supported the information he had found himself about Valentine searching for a boat to Junon. The cooberating hair strands, complete with Valentine's unique chemical signature when they had been run through a WRO lab, placed him firmly in Junon.

He also trusted his own findings, again backed up by DNA and chemical evidence from the local lab, which proved that Valentine had been undoubtedly in Icicle, sleeping at the inn. The locals had even given supporting evidence of two men, one wounded, the other matching Valentine's unique description, coming into town and checking into the inn.

"I am in charge of my destiny." He mumbled, only half aware of stumbling into a quaint coffee shop called BooBearie, ordering himself a pot of green tea, and sitting down at a table by the window next to a tall wooden bear that some enterprising soul had carved out of a tree trunk with a chainsaw.

A waitress dressed in a red plaid dress and a starchy white apron set his tea in front of him and hastily retreated to whisper worriedly behind the counter with her coworkers about the odd Wutaian man . He'd gulped down two cups of tea while contemplating just how he was going to explain this to Rufus.

"Rufus, I have positive proof that Vincent Valentine was in Icicle and Junon at the same time. I have DNA and chemical evidence, and witnesses." No, that wouldn't work.

"Rufus, Vincent Valentine can be in two places simultaneously…" Not that either.

"Rufus, we should rehire Vincent Valentine. I have said in the past that I needed to be in two places at the same time. He figured out how to do it. By the way, I'm heading back to Wutai to become a monk. Take care. Don't jump off any more buildings. Please forward my paycheck to the monastery." More pleasing emotionally, but still shy of a good report.

Tseng spent a few luxurious moments imagining the peace of being a monk. Perhaps he'd become one of those aesthetics who lived in high mountain caves with no sound other than the wind blowing past the mouth of the cave they meditated in. It would be lovely to be able to look out from the mouth of his lonely cave and meditate on the transient beauty of the mists covering the mountain tops. He could sip tea, contemplate the joy of silence, occasionally eat a sparse plain meal while thinking about the simple complexity of life, and then at night he could sleep on a straw mat. The only time he would be interrupted would be when people came to bring him food and request simple blessings.

His cell phone's ring brought him back to reality. He set his teacup down, glanced at the caller ID, and sighed.

"Yes, sir. This is Tseng." He made his voice sound alive and professional.

"Have you found anything Tseng?" Rufus sounded calmly urbane, as if he was sitting at a poolside discussing hibiscus pruning.

"I have some contradictory evidence, sir that I will need to look into." Tseng glanced out the window and rubbed one finger over the bridge of his nose as he spotted a snow covered Elena trudge her way back to the top of the snowboard run. "Valentine seems to be both in Junon and in Icicle. I have chemical samples, DNA, and witness testimony placing him in both locations at once."

Silence.

"I am having Reno look into the Junon evidence. I am still in Icicle and will look around here." Tseng continued.

Silence.

"Sir?"

"Tseng…when you find him, ask him how he did that." Rufus sounded a bit wistful. "That is a great trick. I'd like two of me."

Tseng's world became a dark, dark place as his mind trotted out a vision of two Rufus Shinras running masochistically through the most dangerous situations imaginable while mouthing off to silver haired sociopaths. "Yes, sir."

"Good." Rufus hung up.

Tseng contemplated tossing his phone down the snowboard run and following after it, head first, without a board. Instead, he sipped more tea and tried to figure out what had happened.

They had definitely seen Valentine standing behind them in the caverns after Barret had shot someone dressed in Valentine's cape. Valentine had seemed significantly angry that that someone had been shot. Angry enough to rip off Barret's artificial arm and snarl a death threat before running into the caverns. This seemed to indicate that first, Valentine had been indeed in the City of the Ancients as Hojo had 

predicted. It also seemed to indicate that Valentine hadn't been a helpless prisoner, but had been there of his own free will with the other person since he had made no attempt to flee and hadn't been constrained in any fashion. It also indicated that whoever that person was, was a friend of Valentine's.

Tseng pondered who it could be. Avalanche was all accounted for. Lucrecia? Hardly likely that she'd be running about in Valentine's cape in the City of the Ancients, and the running person had been a man. He'd seen enough to recognize the gender of the figure that had lured them through the City of the Ancients. Hojo? Again, that wasn't likely. The man would want Valentine back in a lab to experiment…

Hmmm…

If the diary was true he'd want to protect Valentine. The evidence that he had found in Hojo's house would also support that Hojo was the other person. The only problem with that was the person running ahead of them in the cape had a lot of stamina and had seemed young. Last time he'd seen Hojo the man had been slipping past middle age and heading straight into his more mature years and had been barely able to hobble around his lab. Could Hojo have gotten someone to…

Hmm…

If the diary was true, just what had Gast and Lucrecia done to Hojo? He'd been experimented on, but had anyone really looked into what they had done to him? Just what modifications had they made? Just how many more secrets did Hojo have? If Valentine was now nearly immortal, could that also have been transferred to Hojo? Could Hojo have been the young man that had run ahead of them? That would have explained Valentine's presence in Hojo's house and his reappearance in the Ancient's city. Hojo had done as he had said he should have done years ago and brought Valentine to the safest place he could.

Tseng sipped his tea and nodded to himself, making a few notes on his PHS to research Hojo's health records and look deeper into Gast's experiments. That would keep Elena busy and keep her from picking up any more irritating habits from her newest best friend, Yuffie.

The Planet hated him, Tseng knew it.

Picking up his train of thought, Tseng sipped his tea thoughtfully. Assuming it was Hojo for the moment, they had to have disturbed them at some point in time, causing Hojo to want to make them believe Vincent was leaving the city. Why? To keep them away from finding something? Or was it simply to keep them from waking Valentine from his sleep?

Hmmm.

Valentine had looked like someone who'd woken up, rumpled and a bit shaggy. Valentine had also reacted with fury at Barret shooting Hojo. Those few brief moments seeing Valentine's face, clear of its concealing cloak and headband, and absolutely furious had made him suddenly remember that Valentine had been the Turk's leader, a Turk leader with a nasty reputation too. His take-over from his 

predecessor Jin had been a brutal, cold-blooded war that was still mostly classified since no one in Shinra wanted to give the Turks any ideas of repeating it.

If Valentine had voluntarily been in the city with Hojo then it might stand to reason that Hojo had wanted to lure them away from Valentine, to protect Valentine from being woken up. But Valentine had woken up and he'd followed them into the caverns. He'd seen Barret shoot Hojo and had reacted with anger. If Valentine knew who had been impersonating him, which had been supported in his later actions, and if that person was Hojo, then Valentine no longer considered Hojo the enemy. Considering the level of pure fury in Valentine's face, it was quite possible that Hojo's diary had been true, that Valentine had once been Hojo's lover, and he'd gotten that part of his memory back.

Valentine's sudden race through the tunnels and caverns of the city to reach the fallen impersonator, and the gentleness he'd handled the injured figure would support the fact that whoever it had been was someone he cared about. The only people who he was romantically linked to were Lucrecia, who was definitely female, and Hojo.

If it was Hojo, it would also explain why Valentine hadn't shown up at the meeting point. If it had been a member of Avalanche, Valentine would have met them and handed them over for medical care. If it had been someone from Bone Village, again, he would have gotten them immediately to medical attention. Instead, he'd disappeared. The only clue they'd picked up was some drops of blood in the Silent Forest. Either Valentine was feeling distrusting, and after seeing Barret's actions it wasn't entirely out of the question, or he had something to conceal. He hadn't been shy about revealing himself in the caverns, so he could have been trying to hide the imposter. If the imposter was Hojo, Valentine would have good reasons for keeping him away from everyone, especially Shinra and Avalanche.

That all led to the present problem. After the forest, Valentine and whoever it had been with him had disappeared. A trail had led them to the docks where a couple of people remembered someone matching Valentine's description looking for a boat. The man at the counter of the store had said that Valentine had bought a chocobo lure. Since wild chocobo couldn't travel over water that meant that Valentine had either caught a boat after not being able to get a chocobo, which didn't fit in the short amount of time he'd had to work with, or he'd tried to get a boat then quickly changed his mind and decided to travel by chocobo.

The evidence pointed to the impossible fact that he'd done both.

Damn, Valentine was good.

Tseng sipped his tea feeling a small spark of pride. Even today, Valentine was a great Turk. He hoped that he'd be able to convince Valentine to come back to work for them sometime. When it really came down to it, only Reno, Rude, and he were left of the Turks. While Elena had potential, she really shouldn't have been promoted to being an active operative. She needed at least two more years of training. Reno and Rude were being run into the ground. They hadn't seen a day off, or even an afternoon off since Sephiroth decimated the Turks. He barely had time to train one Turk, Elena, much 

less recruit and train anyone else. They needed every Turk they could get. That Valentine was the best of the best only made him more desirable.

Tseng sipped his tea, pulling his mind back on track.

Valentine had disappeared. The last known place he'd been in had been the City of the Ancients. He'd seen the man at the foot of the cliff tending to the fallen impersonator. When he'd checked back, Valentine and the other had already disappeared. He'd gone back, bundled up Barret, who had been in shock from having his arm ripped off, and had gone to meet Valentine in front of the city. He'd never shown up. After waiting, he'd sent Elena and Yuffie to Bone Village with Barret, and he'd scouted the area. The most he'd found was Valentine's footprints running towards the back of the caverns and leading out to the snowfields. He'd found the place that the imposter had lain and a few tracks leading away to a rock gulch. The trail had ended there. On his way back, he'd spotted some tracks and blood near the area where the malldancers lurked. He could assume that Valentine had taken his companion to the village, so had gone in that direction. The few sources he'd found had pointed him to the docks and the chocobo fields.

There the clear trail ended, so that was where he had to return. He had to have missed something. How could the people in Icicle and Junon spot Valentine? How could there be hair samples in both places? There was no way. But could he take the chance of abandoning the trails to go investigate the back-trail? They would grow cold, giving Valentine more time to lose himself. If even one of those trails was the true trail, they had no time to waste. However, if Valentine had set up both of the trails as decoys, they were wasting time following them.

But how could he set them up with the limited amount of time that he'd had? At most, he'd been a half hour to an hour ahead of them.

Tseng wanted to tear his hair out. It all circled around in a never ending loop. He had to investigate the back-trail. He had to investigate the trails in Junon and Icicle and he only had enough manpower to deal with two trails. If Valentine got any more creative, he'd end up with multitudes of trails leading him to other multitudes, which would branch out infinitely until the only thing he could do is calmly state that Valentine wasn't presently in the room, to the best of his knowledge.

Damn the man and damn the man that had trained him to be such a great Turk.

Tseng stood up, tossed some money down on the table, and went to collect Elena. He'd have Reno and Rude investigate the trail in Junon. He'd have to go back to Bone Village and the City of the Ancients and chance that the trail he was following would grow cold. He'd investigate thoroughly in both those locations then return to Icicle if no other avenues presented themselves.

Yuffie was screaming joyously down the run, weaving, darting, and zipping through the obstacles. Tseng looked around for Elena, but didn't seen her. Guessing that she was walking back, he waited at the top of the run, shuffling his feet to keep warm.

"Hey, you want to try?" Yuffie scampered up to him offering her snowboard, with Elena at her heels.

"No, thank you." Tseng motioned for Elena to follow him. "We need to get back to work."

Yuffie snickered, "Good luck. If Vinnie doesn't want to be found, you aren't going to find him."

Tseng bowed politly and stalked off. "We are going back to Bone Village and see if we can figure out where Valentine went."

"Yes, sir." Elena trotted after him, still wearing her snowboarding gear and juggling her board.

**Reeve**

The last of the refugees stepped up onto the running board of the truck and got settled. WRO personnel raced around doing last minute checks and closing the transport's doors before yelling an all-set to the drivers who put their trucks into gear and drove off.

"That's everyone from The Gold Saucer and Corel, sir." A young lieutenant saluted Reeve.

Reeve nodded back. "Very good. Make sure our people in Kalm know when to expect them."

"Yes, sir." The man saluted. "I'll do that now, sir."

Reeve nodded again and the man rushed off.

"Ya wish ya had tha' much energy, don't ya." Cait Sith stood at his side waving his tail.

"I wish I had that much sleep." Reeve turned and headed back to his car with his faithful friend following after him.

Contrary to what Barret had said, the people of Corel had been lined up and eager to go once they had been informed of the situation. It had been the informing that had been the problem. Apparently, the people in Corel had believed that the attacks on Costa del Sol, Gongaga, and Nibelhiem had been minor skirmishes with local monsters that had done nothing more than some slight property damage. When they'd found out nearly the entire populace of those towns had died, they'd been more than willing to evacuate with the people from The Gold Saucer.

"What was Barret thinking?" Reeve slumped into the car and let the driver close the door after him. "Why? In all that is Holy? Why?"

"He migh' not ha' wanted ta tell 'em." Cait settled himself next to his creator. "Ya know how 'e is."

Reeve sighed. Yes, he knew how Barret was. If he didn't before this morning, he'd learned when he'd gotten a call from Tseng explaining Barret's latest outing and requesting someone to come collect the 

man. He was still trying to figure out how to tell the other members of Avalanche that Barret had tried to kill Vincent. They wouldn't take it well.

Before the present troubles, many in Avalanche, himself included, had often gone to Vincent with their worries and troubles. He, to his horror, had dragged the silent man into the nightmare of Deepground after asking for help in what had seemed a small problem. Cloud, when feeling more lost or confused, would often seek out Vincent, if for no other reason than Vincent was a good listener. Yuffie would run to Vincent when her life got too complicated and just needed someone to accept her, not as the crown princess or as one of the Planet's saviors, but just as Yuffie, who liked to talk a bit too much and brag a bit too often, and just needed someone to like her for herself. Cid liked to spend lazy afternoons with Vincent drinking, tinkering with planes, and trying to work through the chaos of working, being the town mayor, and being married. Tifa went to Vincent when she felt her world start spinning out of control from Cloud's moodiness, the children's demands, the consistent headache of running the bar, and having complete strangers demand her time because, after all, she was a hero. Even Nanaki would politely seek Vincent for advice on the best ways to keep Cosmo Canyon safe and how to deal with the sometimes not so ideal conditions of being in charge of the defenses of a relatively peaceful people.

Only Barret had shunned Vincent and now he'd tried to kill him. The tensions that had been directed at him for acting cautiously about the demon attacks would now focus on Barret. He didn't envy the man. If they had been nearly ready to disown him for a bit of well placed caution, he didn't like to think what they would do to Barret. He could say from his own point of view that he, privately, in the non-WRO commissioner part of his mind, wanted to tie the man up and toss him to the nearest Midgar Zolom.

"What did Vincent ever do to him?" Reeve slumped further in his seat feeling as if the entire Planet was pressing down on him.

Cait leaned toward him. "Ya feelin' okay there lad? Yer lookin' a might pale."

"I'm fine. Fine." Reeve straightened and carefully took a deep breath hiding the wince of pain that shot through him at the movement. "I'm just tired."

"Ya better ta' care o' yer self." Cait continued to look at him worriedly. "Ge' some sleep."

"Tonight. I promise." Reeve patted his creation. "I'll even eat a whole meal."

"Now, don' go overboard there, laddie. Too much change 'll fry m' circuits." The toy cat snuggled closer to him.

"Then I won't tell you about sleeping in till seven tomorrow, or my plan to eat something for breakfast instead of just having coffee." Reeve mused with a smile.

"Ah…too much… feelin' a bit woozie…" Cait laughed against his side.

The car slipped into his parking spot at WRO and the driver got out and opened the door. Reeve scooped up Cait as he slipped out of the vehicle. The security guard at the elevator entrance nodded politely to him then returned back to his security monitors.

Tifa was waiting for him when the elevator doors opened. She looked like a vengeful fury. "We heard."

The we became obvious as Tifa grabbed him and dragged him bodily into a nearby conference room where Cloud, silent and edgy, Cid, smoking and growling, and Nanaki, prowling and snarling were gathered.

"What happened?" Tifa let him go and turned to glare at him.

Reeve sighed feeling a bit winded from his sudden trip into the room. "Barret tried to kill Vincent. Vincent had apparently been up in The City of the Ancients and Barret tried to shoot him. There seems to be a bit of confusion, because someone had been impersonating Vincent, so when Barret tried to kill Vincent, he shot the impersonator."

"Vince is fine then?" Cid smashed out his cigarette.

"Tseng says that Vincent was completely unhurt. Barret did try to attack the real Vincent, but Vincent broke off Barret's gun arm when he tried." Reeve settled into a chair, rubbing his chest. "Vincent then ran to check on the impersonator, who had, Tseng believes, been seriously hurt."

Nanaki nodded. "Vincent would not like another to be harmed in his place."

"Vincent and the impersonator disappeared after that, and Tseng is looking for them." Reeve looked around hoping for a glass of water.

"Any ideas about where they went and disappeared to?" Cid lit another cigarette.

"None."

Cloud stepped closer, "And Barret?"

"He's on his way back." Reeve got up, spying a carafe sitting next to a small stack of paper cups. "He should be here in a few hours." The carafe had cold coffee in it, probably a left over from a morning meeting, but Reeve gratefully took a cup.

Cloud stalked back and forth between the conference table and the window. "Are you sure Vincent was unharmed?"

"Yes." Reeve sunk into the chair again, sipping coffee, relieved that the pressure in his chest was receding. "Tseng says he was furious that Barret had shot the impersonator, but as far as he could tell, Vincent was fine."

"Well, that's good news." Tifa sat down in another chair.

"We will have to deal with Barret." Nanaki shook his head, making his beads chime together.

"Yeah." Cid puffed angrily. "Shooting Vince, even if it wasn't Vince, isn't something to blow off."

"We can put him into a holding cell for awhile." Reeve sipped more cold coffee. "Let's deal with one emergency at a time."

"Agreed." Nanaki sighed. "With Sephiroth returned and Dr. Crescent terrorizing the Planet, we have enough to deal with."

Reeve tiredly climbed to his feet. "I'll arrange the holding cell then." He headed for the door. "Yuffie is with Tseng, helping him locate Vincent. I'll tell Gordo where she is and do what I can to help them locate him."

"Sounds good." Cid got up. "I've gotta get to help Shera out with the folks from Rocket Town, then I'll head up there to help out."

"If you need anything, let me know." Reeve was almost to the door when the pain in his chest came back with a vengeance. His legs buckled as he stumbled, his chest feeling as if someone was crushing him.

"Reeve!"

Hands caught him as he fell.

"Reeve, are you…"

The world seemed glassy and everything echoed strangely. His world narrowed to the crushing pain and the worried, half focused faces of his friends as they scrambled around him.

"Fuck. Gimme the… Get a med team to…where the hell are we…"

"Take it easy, Reeve, we've got you."

"…conference room two oh three, and hurry the fuck up, Reeve's having a heart attack."

"Stay calm, my friend. Stay calm and try to breath."

**Veld**

"You ever wonder if the Planet has a sense of humor?" Veld set down a jack and pegged two places on the cribbage board.

"No." Davies placed a three down and pegged two spaces.

Veld scooped up his cards and frowned. "Hmmm. You always were a bit too practical."

"I just like to keep life simple." Davies picked up his cards and frowned too.

"How are you two doing?" Bettina bustled by with a casserole on her way to put it in the oven.

Veld and Davies looked up and nodded in unison. "We're fine."

As soon as she left, they returned to frowning at their cards. They were sitting in the living room of the small apartment behind the gift shop. Vincent and Hojo were asleep, curled together on a makeshift cot in the corner and they had been ordered to stop hovering. Bettina had even handed them the deck of cards and the cribbage board to keep them busy.

Not that that was a huge issue. Veld, Davies, and many of the people in Bone Village had been quite busy preparing for Tseng's anticipated, return visit.

"I think it has a sense of humor." Veld tossed his cards down shaking his head.

Davies snorted and tossed his cards down too. "Well, if it doesn't, let's hope Tseng does."

"No. He doesn't." Veld gathered up the cards and began shuffling. "He's one of those people that were born without one. Terrible, really, terrible."

"He's going to need one." Davies smiled grimmly. "If he thought Junon and Icicle were frustrating, the boy's going to explode over this."

Veld shrugged as he dealt the cards. "He'll get over it….in time."

"You don't have any mercy, do you?" Davies picked up his cards.

"Sure, I do." Veld picked up his cards and hummed a second. "I like to think of this as…training."

"You now have Vincent appearing in Edge, Mideel, the Chocobo Sage's, Fort Condor, Kalm, and even the chocobo farm, plus you have what looks to be like a cabin that he's been staying in over by the foothills." Davies tossed down a six. "And each of those runs off into five other directions, which run off into three directions."

"I'm providing him with a challenge." Veld set down a nine and pegged his spaces. "It's good for him."

"One might think you hate the boy."

Veld looked piously up, "I swear, I love him like my own son."

"Poor kid."


	7. Home Again

AN: Sorry I haven't responded to my reviewers. I had a very serious family problem and while I read all your reviews and was pathetically grateful for them, I didn't have the energy to respond. Thanks everyone! You don't know how much I appreciated hearing how happy you were with my story the last couple of months. I hope to get back to my responses now.

Now a Monster

Chapter 7: Home Again

* * *

Hojo

I wish I had stayed asleep, or at least in that pleasant half state where you drift between sleep and being awake. There, there were no problems. I was aware of Vincent wrapped around me protectively with my head against his arm, his body pressed against my back, his arms wrapped around me, and his breath in my hair. I wanted to stay like that, safe and loved.

It had been so long and even if it was just a delusion, I wanted to cling to it.

The world however doesn't like people lazing about in bed. Ask any person who's ever tried to sleep in late. They will tell stories of long lost relatives suddenly calling, wrong numbers, neighbors showing up for a cup of coffee that hadn't spoken to them in years, religious missionaries, and small children selling candy. Even I had my share. When I lived alone, I had carefully cultivated an image of the ultimate person you wouldn't want to bother, but still, even after all my cackling, evil smirking, and not so subtle threats of odd scientific experiments that needed "volunteers", I still got yanked out of bed by sweet faced children selling chocolate bars.

At least this time I knew my waker wouldn't break into tears and go wailing to his outraged mommy.

"Really? He is? How sweet." Veld was snickering evilly into a phone. "Be nice to him and give him some of my gyokuro. Make him pay for it, but you can let him into my private stash." More snickering.

"Veld. Keep it down." Vincent whispered. "If you have to gloat, do so quietly."

I heard the rattle of the phone being put back into its cradle. "Tseng is feeling a bit stressed."

Vincent shifted slightly pulling the blanket up around me and settling me more comfortably against his body. "Just be quiet."

I drifted, muzzily wondering why Veld was alive and talking about Tseng, but I decided I was probably hallucinating the whole thing –I have lots of practice hallucinating things. I once ambled around for two months speaking Wutaian and believing I was a drugstore clerk living back in my childhood village. Much to my later humiliation, the only person who understood me was Tseng, who had the lovely task of keeping me from inadvertently harming myself (My piggy presidential pal had to have him physically hauled into his office and had to issue a direct order for him to babysit me while I was "feeling a bit under the weather.") and afterwards Tseng avoided me for two years, to our mutual peace, well being, and joy as our psychological sore spots recovered from the result of having too much quality time together.- so I went back to sleep hoping that I could hallucinate that Vincent and I never went to Nibelheim and had grown old together and I was now suffering from arthritis.

When I woke up again, Vincent had disappeared and the room was cast in the twilight shades of dusk. It was a nice enough room with its cushy armchairs, heavy coffee table, and thickly framed pictures. Like most houses in Bone Village, the roof was the curved dome of a skull and the windows were eye or hear holes. The smell of candles was lingering in the air and a few rustling sounds were coming from another room.

I tried to sit up, but quickly learned that sitting was not an activity that my body was willing to perform. The sudden sharp pain radiating from my shoulder, back, and legs told me quite clearly that lying still was probably the best option for the foreseeable future. I hate being still. There was an entire Planet out there to look at and I was missing it. Just to spite me, the Planet was probably doing something spectacular, one of those once every ten thousand year things, and the reason I was alone was because Vincent and every other non-bullet perforated person were out gaping at the event.

Well, if the Planet was going to be like that, I was going back to sleep. I'd meet its vindictive splendor and raise it by complete indifference. It could glitter and sparkle and dance like a chocobo and it wouldn't bother me. Nope. Not a bit. Not even slightly…honestly…I bet the mako volcano off the coast of the Western Continent erupted. I'd been waiting for that for the last twenty three years. Or maybe a polar shift… that would be amazing…

I opened my eyes to glare out the window at the horrid Planet and found myself looking at Vincent. He was crouched next to the bed looking at me with an unreadable expression.

No small, private smile that he used to reserve just for me.

No "I missed you."

Not even an "I see you're still alive. Where's my gun?"

I was just convincing myself that my broken mind had once again led me off on a small fun-filled fantasy of Vincent carrying me out of the City of the Ancients and holding me as I slept when he reached out and delicately traced his finger down the side of my face.

"Feeling better?" His voice was as soft as the fading light around us.

Life, as I mentioned before, is not fair. If life was like the movies, I would have been able to whisper back in a smooth, pleasing, but brave tone my heroic, though completely bogus, assurance that I was feeling better. I probably would have even been able to reach one weak hand up to touch my beloved before passing out from the strain. As it was, when I tried to talk, my throat decided that that was the time to show me what happens when you haven't had a drink in a few years, you run around dust filled ruins, and get shot: your throat feels like someone's poured cement down it, let it harden, then covered the whole thing with glue. Then of course there was the fact that I was lying in a cot with my right side to the wall and the left side, the side with the gun perforations, was facing where Vincent was, so even the hand gesture was a no go.

Vincent interpreted my sudden gacking, gulping, and clawing at my throat pathetically with my right hand and gently helped me sit up and handed me a drink. Being the practical person he was, he handed me a potion.

Someday, I had to work on getting those things to not taste like candy. Really, you're hurt, in pain, maybe bleeding to death and you're supposed to be saved by a fluid that tastes like something you'd pick out in the candy aisle for a toddler. Couldn't someone find a more adult flavor? Why did it have to taste like a strawberry lollipop?

I gagged the stuff down and felt it work through my body. Vincent crouched next to me watching my recovery with careful eyes. I was sure that if I had the nerve to not heal fully, that he'd pour another syrupy concoction down my throat, so I stayed still and silently urged the potion to do its job thoroughly.

"Good."

Ah. I was getting the picture. This was Vincent in silent, broody mode. Which means, this was a very upset, worried Vincent who needed reassurance that all was well.

Happily, if belatedly, the potion healed my shoulder enough for me to reach up and touch him and my throat was back to being functional. Mind you, I couldn't pull of Vincent's dark, velvet cadences without direct divine intervention, so I croaked back, "Are you better?"

One might think I would be a bit more snarky about this, but after years of living with the perfection that is Vincent, I had given up all pretense of trying to match him. I was born homely, with a rough voice, a gangling boney body, and a less than impressive presence. Trying to compete with Vincent's dark beauty, flawless voice, elegant body, and a presence that could make a rampaging herd of Malborros stop and dither is just too much for any mortal. I enjoyed basking in his glory though. That's always been fun.

He brushed off my concern and started inspecting my shoulder with gentle, but very professional interest.

Oh. This is Vincent in avoidance mode, which combined with the silent, broody mode means he's nearly desperate for someone to either kill or to hold him and sooth his nerves. Vincent is, contrary to what his idiot friends may believe, a very delicate soul in his own I-have-a-gun, I-kill-for-a-living, I'm-a-bad-bad-man way.

I stopped his exploration of my shoulder by sitting up and catching his hand. "I'm fine, Vincent. I want to know about you."

His eyes skittered away, still astray in the neighborhood of avoidance, a happy suburb of in the land of denial. "I was not the one who was shot."

Ah, how this brought back memories. It also brought back the easiest strategy to deal with broody, avoiding Vincent. I had practice. So, I looked solemn and nodded. "Yes, and I am still a bit tired. I should probably get back to sleep."

I gave a sleepy yawn and fussed with the blankets then stopped and looked at him worriedly, "Are…are you going to be here?" I made my voice hesitate uncertainly. "I'm…" I glanced nervously around the darkening room. "I'm just…"

I knew that part of Vincent knew what I was doing. It was an old game we played when we lived together. Vincent would be nearly ricocheting off the walls in an excess of anxiety about something and I'd come up with some reason that it was necessary for him to come over and cuddle under the pretense of soothing my nerves. Generalized anxiety was good enough, and it would, considering the circumstances, be difficult for him to say I was lying through my teeth.

A tiny smile that peeked at the corner of his mouth also let me know he was on to my act, but he shifted closer and sat on the edge of the bed. "I'll be right here."

I bit my lip and nodded. "Okay… I suppose I'm just a bit nervous… Where are we?"

"Bone Village." He glanced around and sighed. (Translation: I'm nervous and tired. Can we skip the small talk?)

I reached over and ran my fingers over his cheek and jaw. "Sleep next to me?"

He looked over at me then his eyes skittered away nervously. "Hojo, about…"

"Later. We can have that conversation later." I shifted over making more room for him then settled down on the bed.

He hesitated a moment, then stretched out next to me lying stiffly on top of the blankets. He really can be stubborn in these moods, but I don't give up easily either. I shifted closer and arranged myself against him ignoring all the ridged muscles, shallow panicky breathing, and involuntary twitching. I slipped an arm around his waist and used his shoulder as a pillow.

He remained a Vincicle as I pretended to drift back to sleep then as soon as I actually was starting to drowse, he relaxed and curled around me.

"You scared me." He wrapped his arm around me.

"Sorry. I thought it was a good idea." I murmured back.

"Hmmm." That's Vincent's way of telling me I'm a bonehead.

We stayed quiet for awhile enjoying just being together as the sun sank away leaving us in darkness. People were walking past on the street probably hurrying home or to the bar.

"I read your diary." Vincent whispered.

"Diary?" I felt my eyes pop open when I realized what he was talking about. _Oh Planet, if he read that he knows…_

I never, ever wanted Vincent to read that thing. I should have burned it, but it had kept me company for so long it had become a friend. When I had to leave Junon a few steps in front of the Turks, I had carelessly left it behind and it had fallen into the one set of hands I never wanted it to be in. Vincent does have his pride and reading about the things that had happened in Nibelheim, how he had become so very, very sick, would have been a terrible blow. I couldn't care less what he had read about me. I know what kind of fool I am, and I know what kind of monster I've become. I just never wanted him to know what Lucrecia had made him into.

"I remembered." He turned to look at me and cupped my face in his hand. "I'm sorry. I…"

"It's all right. Don't…" I wanted to head that off quickly. I'd heard of his long, depressing wail about how he wronged his precious Lucrecia, and I didn't want him to begin that with me.

"I shot you." He ran his hand down, sliding his palm to the places his bullets had hit. "On the cannon, I shot you and… I was happy when I did it."

"You didn't know." I caught his hand and lifted it kissing his knuckles. "You were still sick."

He sighed (Translation: I don't entirely believe you, but I do love you.) and slid that hand away to cup the back of my head and pull me into a kiss. It started softly enough, his lips silky, brushing delicately over mine. I didn't really want that though so I strained up a bit, added more pressure and opened my mouth in a small invitation. He hesitated a second then in the next I was pinned to the bed with him devouring my mouth. I wasn't going to complain and pulled him down, wanting to feel his weight, solid and real, against me. I was just about to go searching for the hem of his shirt to get rid of the thing, when we got interrupted.

"Hey, I said you could stay here. I didn't say you could fuck." The lights clicked on ruining the mood completely and making me have a few seconds of déjà vu about a horrid incident with a neighborhood girl, my mother, and why I never dated much when I lived at home.

Vincent growled, but let me up so I could sit and gape at Veld. I hadn't been hallucinating. He was alive and smirking. I had thought he'd died. I should have known. Anyone who can keep up with Vincent for all those years had to be nearly immortal.

And note, I didn't say a single word about him being too much of a gloating, sadistic bastard to be let into the lifestream.

"Any news?" Vincent's voice still held the remnants of a growl, which Veld silently laughed at.

"Cooper is going to have his first grandson." Veld threw himself into a chair. "Tseng is roving around in the old cabins chewing on his nails, and Cosmo Canyon just got wiped off the face of the Planet."

Vincent's full attention snapped to Veld. "Cosmo Canyon?"

"A hoard of demons ripped through it." Veld put his feet up on the coffee table. "You're pal Highwind managed to get most of them out, but the body count was high."

"Lucrecia?" Vincent bowed his head, looking at the floor.

"Know anyone else that runs around with an army of demons?" Veld snorted, looking disgusted.

"She can't do much." I struggled out of the blankets to sit next to Vincent then yipped and dove back in when I realized just how little I was wearing.

"Thanks for leaving me the boxers." I hissed at Vincent's bowed head.

"She seems to be able to do just fine. She's taken out Costa del Sol, Gongaga, Nibelheim, and now Cosmo Canyon." Veld was patting down his pockets looking for a cigarette and a lighter. "And rumor has it that she's taken to hijacking copters with Shinra or WRO logos on them. Quite an enterprising lady."

"Helicopters?" Vincent looked up frowning.

"Yep. Helicopters. She's got nice collection going too." Veld found his cigarettes and lighter. "Got one just a little bit ago." He lit his cigarette and puffed contentedly. "You know the one… the one with your pal Barret on it."

Barret? The loud mouth moron, who I strongly suspect shot me? Still, he was Vincent's friend, so I reached over to comfort Vincent, but he shook his head and caught my hand using it to pull me closer to him. I scrambled to keep the blankets to protect what small insignificant scrap of dignity I might have still possessed.

Honestly, since both of them had seen be drunk, insane, and in various states of undress –Please Planet, let that whole episode I vaguely remember about Costa del Sol, a pack of dimwitted science groupies, a lab coat, and a itsy-bitsy black pair of swim trunks be a drunken hallucination- , I didn't really have much in the way of dignity…or self esteem left.

"I'm sorry for the pilots." He shook his head. "But I would be lying to say I was upset about Barret."

"I didn't think you'd be crying over that." Veld's mouth tipped into a small, sarcastic smile.

"Saves me time." Vincent stood up. "Tseng is in the cabins?"

"Yeah, but his little posse is hanging around the store slurping up anything hot." Veld didn't seem in a rush to run out to get answers. Considering that it was now night and even in summer Bone Village tended toward being extremely bracing, I doubted he'd seem interested in rushing or running till the next day.

"I need to speak to him." Vincent looked up through the windows, frowning at the sky.

I tagged my reunion dead. Veld sighed and snubbed out his cigarette, obviously joining me in believing that Vincent was off to slink around and spread moody, goth vibes around the area. He'd be slightly 

hampered since his cape was gone, and he couldn't swish around flamboyantly, however, I had faith he could still overcome his lack of ratty, shredded material.

"You're spoiling my fun." Veld glowered. "I've spent a great deal of time and effort making Tseng believe that you are everywhere on the Planet and you're going to kill it dead."

"You'll find a new way to torture him soon enough." Vincent paused and checked back with me. "I need to speak with him. I'll be back soon."

And with that he was gone.

And with that I was left to the not so gentle care of Veld.

I would like to point out here that if he couldn't even find his own kid, how the hell was I supposed to do it? Was I the head of the Planet's largest intelligence gathering agency? I barely could keep track of myself much less Veld. After Vincent's entombment, we spent a great deal of time and energy keeping as far away from each other as business would allow. I didn't even know he'd been married till I got a company-wide email on Shinra's employee listserve mentioning his wife and daughter's death. I wouldn't have recognized her if she came in with a sign around her neck saying she was Veld's lost, supposedly dead daughter. There were days that I didn't even recognize Sephiroth. I often had trouble even remembering where I lived and, on more occasions than I care to admit to, I found myself sleeping on a street grate under an old newspaper in Section 5 with the recent memory of wandering around looking for my apartment with no clue where it was.

Veld sat and watched me. I watched him right back. It was really a great, great night for me. I got to wake up to bullet wounds, I had to deal with a stressed out Vincent, got interrupted making out like a teen, was abandoned by my beloved in favor of him chumming around with someone in a filthy hovel, and now got to have a chipper conversation with a man who's daughter I used as an unwilling volunteer in a insane experiment that I, to this day, can't understand why I was doing it.

It isn't like there is an untapped market for people with summon materia implanted in their bodies.

I was better off with the briquettes.

"We don't like each other." Veld started it off with his usual tact. "Actually, I'd really like to kill you."

"True." I nodded. "I can understand that."

"The only reason you're still breathing is because of Vincent." His voice was clipped and professional.

I considered explaining that I didn't know about Elfie, but in the past, I've found people very seldom care that you didn't recognize their loved ones. When you tell them, they suddenly get very humanitarian and start blathering on about how it doesn't matter if you knew or not, that torturing people in the name of science is a crime against all mankind, and then trot off to scream obscenities at fellow motorists, cheer for their neighbor's misfortunes, and scheme to get even with their coworkers, bosses, and significant others.

"Understood." I did too. I was the same with my son and what Lucrecia had done to him. If anything, I was impressed with his self control. If left in a room with a helpless Lucrecia, I'd have had bits and pieces of her plastered on the walls and decorating the floor by now.

He stood up and ambled out. "Since Vincent's destroying my game, you might as well go back to your place. I'll get Davies to help you."

I was bundled and shuffled off in minutes. Davies appeared, wrapped me up in a thick coat, and nearly hauled me out of that place at a quick trot. He only slowed down after we'd turned a few corners and gotten a decent way across the village.

"I'm glad you're out of there." Davies looked over his shoulder towards the cheerful skull I'd just been in. "Veld's okay enough, but…"

But Veld was dangerous and often unpredictable. No need to say more.

"Don't worry too much about it." I trundled along as fast as my achy body would allow. "He won't do anything to upset Vincent.

Davies didn't look convinced, but shrugged it away. "Bettina's got your place all ready for you. We figured you'd be wanting it soon."

"Thanks." I then gave a tiny laugh. "I guess I didn't fool you, did I?"

Davies grinned. "Nah. We knew it was you." He paused as we came to an intersection and had to wait till a sled hauling a rib as large as a house went past. "Actually, we'd been expecting you." We started down another street heading towards my skull. "You were bound to come home sooner or later."

Home.

What an odd concept. I hadn't had a real home, or thought I had one, since Vincent went to sleep decades ago. I had had a glossy, expansive apartment that screamed wealth and power. I even had a villa in Costa del Sol with impeccable architecture, awe inspiring views, and interior decorating that had won awards. Yet, I only considered those places places. I never considered them a home any more than I considered an inn a home. They were just places to go to sleep in. I would have been just as happy on a cot in a back room. How strange to find I had a home all along and didn't even know it. When we got to my skull, I grinned at its familiar toothy door.

Davies unlocked it and handed me the key. "Welcome back, Hojo. Come over to the store tomorrow and say hello to everyone." He looked innocently up at the sky. "You might even want to go look at the excavations and work with the boys."

What he was saying was, come to the store tomorrow and get dragged out to the mud pits. After, you and your newly bonded pals can stagger back to the bar and drink yourselves into a coma. Sure, Vincent will probably have to come and haul your wasted self home, but if he hasn't managed to kill you by now, what do you have to worry about?

The answer to that is simple. No sex.

I'd be staying home, thank you. If there was a choice between shoveling mud with a group of sweaty dirty men or writhing around in bed with Vincent, hand me the lube.

"I'll think about it." I hedged and pushed open the door.

Davies just waved and ambled back towards his home. Bettina was probably waiting for him with a warm cup of herb tea and a thousand questions.

I stepped inside and looked around. It was warm and cozy again. My bone table was cleaned and polished to a mellow shine. The floors were scrubbed clean. The bed was made with clean, new blankets and sheets. A cheery fire was snapping to itself in the fireplace; all my shelves, cabinets, and counters were spotless; and even my curtain was crisp and newly laundered.

Amazing.

I was home.


	8. Last Shot

**Now a Monster**

**Chapter 8: The Last Shot**

* * *

**Tseng**

Tseng trudged miserably back from the foothills east of Bone Village grumbling softly to himself and sucking on his finger, which he'd acquired a rather nasty splinter in. As he had feared the path had become even murkier. He'd discovered traces that pointed to Valentine traveling to nearly every point on the Planet. He even found a small hideaway in the abandoned ruins of old, very splintery, prospector cabins that lurked nearby. It was enough to make him want to call Rufus and tell him to find another Leader, that he was staying in Bone Village and becoming a hermit. He could live in the decrepit shack, that he'd just located, live off the land, wage war on splintery wood, and write books on how to live tranquilly with nature.

Failing that, maybe he could assign Reno to a permanent assignment to Bone Village. Excluding the now not-entirely-to-be-trusted Davies, the last operative, Dmitri, had retired ten years ago and was living happily in Mideel. Replacing him with Reno, under the undeniable, and completely unsuspicious reason that someone needed to be stationed in Bone Village to be able to react to any discoveries. After all, who said Jenova didn't have friends? Colleagues? Children? A twin sister?

Tseng smiled happily to himself as he finally passed the edge of the village and saw the general store. The one unexpected, joyous occurrence in what had become a long nightmare of a search was the wondrous discovery that Bone Village's General Store and Supply Depo had gyoukuro tea. True, Yuffie and her nyophite, Elena, were probably there drinking hot chocolate and giggling insanely at the local boys, but it wouldn't spoil his moment.

He was so intent on tea, and the increasingly tempting image of Reno turning blue, that he nearly ran into someone on the street. It was one of the homeless people, who had stopped and was looking up at the sky worriedly.

"Is there a problem?" Tseng asked as the man continued to gape.

"Sky's funny." The man shook his head. "The aurora. It ain't movin' about."

"The aurora?" Tseng looked up at the sky.

The normally shifting, dancing curtain of light hung low and unmoving in the night sky. The soft shimmer that it usually had was also gone, looking more like a sullen, dull, lifeless curtain hanging over the village. That this was also not the season for the aurora was also troubling.

Tseng glanced around, noticing that a few more people had stopped and were looking up at the sky, some of them muttering worriedly. A few were running into various buildings and pulling other people out to look at the strange aurora. No one looked happy to see it, and Tseng couldn't fault them. With fall of so many of the western cities, anything strange, much less this strange was sure to be suspicious.

He turned and walked quickly down the street, intent on retrieving Elena and Yuffie from their bacchanalia of hot chocolate. The aurora was to the south. He had an uneasy feeling that he was going to find something besides fishing boats down there.

"Tseng." A voice called him from across the street.

He turned and looked and saw Vincent striding rapidly toward him. Somehow, with that aurora hanging over his head, he wasn't as happy as he would have been at seeing him as he thought. Indeed, he suddenly started worrying more.

Vincent was here.

Hojo had to be nearby.

What had the diary said? Something about Dr. Crescent needing both Vincent and Hojo as hosts for Chaos and Omega?

Add to that, Dr. Crescent recently acquired one rather loud mouth, Vincent-hating Barret who knew where Vincent was and…

Tseng hurried faster.

**Cid**

They were like buzzards, circling over him, eyeing him, wondering when he was going to fall down so the feeding frenzy could commence. He would have laughed in defiance. He was Cid Highwind, pilot, hero, head of WRO's air division. This flock of birds couldn't take him down. Ha!

"Sir, just one moment of your time."

"Please, sir, we just need a signature."

"This is very important."

"I've been waiting for three hours."

"The meeting is scheduled for…"

"The sanitary department wants…"

The frightening thing was…he was filling in for Reeve and they'd already taken him down. The poor man was now in a hospital with wires, tubes, and needles all over him after collapsing from too much stress, too little sleep, and borderline malnutrition. They'd even put in a catheter. How much lower could a man go?

Now the same buzzards were eyeing his hide.

"Ge' off, ya blood suckin' parasites." Cid waved his arms scattering them.

A few of the braver, or perhaps the more blood thirsty ones, stuck around a few more seconds, looking him over like a tasty treat they'd be back for. Cid glowered at them until they slipped away to their dark lairs to devour hapless passersby.

"Fuckin' creepy buggers." Cid muttered retreating into Reeve's office.

The phone was ringing insistently at him. He snarled soundlessly at it, got a new cig out, lit it, and watched the damned thing shrill. It didn't stop. He puffed a few times on his cig then ambled over to sit in his chair, condescending to take the phone off its cradle and listen to the ass on the other end of the line.

"Reeve?" Yippie, it was Rufus Shinra, the King of the Bloodsucking Bastards.

"Sorry, I'm fillin' in." Cid grumbled.

"Highwind." Gee, Rufus sounded so pleased to hear him.

"What ya want? I'm busy." Cid puffed a few times, looking at the pile of papers lurking on the corner of the desk, left there by the buzzards.

"I just got word from Tseng. Bone Village is under attack." Rufus actually sounded like he cared.

"Fuck." Cid snubbed out his cig on the pile of papers, half hoping they'd catch on fire. "When?"

"Right now. He's got Elena, Yuffie, and Mr. Valentine with him. They're trying to get the locals through the Sleeping Forest and into the City of the Ancients." Funny, Cid had always wanted to hear Rufus lose his oh-so-perfect, snot-assed cool, and now that he knew that all it took was all-out war with demons to make Mr. Rufus Shinra sound slightly bothered, he wasn't thrilled with his wish being granted. "Mr. Valentine thinks the demons won't cross through the forest."

"He's got Vince with him?" Cid was calculating. Vince would know how to stop the demons. Wouldn't he? He'd at least get the villagers out of the line of fire, and with Yuffie and Tseng… "Okay. The Highwind's still in Junon, but I can get the Shera to them in a couple of hours."

"I'll let Tseng know." Rufus hung up.

"Shitshitshitshitshit." Cid clicked to make another call. "Get the Shera ready for an evac. Bone Village is under attack. I'll be there in fifteen and everything better be ready or it's your ass getting tossed off the deck."

A voice, who sounded like a young intern squeaked, "Yes, sir, Mr. Highwind, sir."

His next call awarded him with Tifa's sleepy voice. "Yes…"

"Tif, Bone Village is under attack. Vince, Tseng, Yuffie, and Elena are there trying to get the villagers out, but we need to get movin'. They ain't going to hold those things long." Cid told her as he strode out the 

office door, waved away a fresh group of buzzards, and went down the hall. "The Shera's leavin' in twenty minutes, get the others together and meet me there."

"Okay. We'll be ready." She sounded more awake and he could already hear Cloud's voice in the background.

Cid waited impatiently for the elevator. It seemed to stop on every floor of the damn building, probably dropping off prey for the vultures. Cid pulled out another cig and lit it, puffing it to life agitatedly, every second dragging by in an eternity of skittering nerves, worry, and anger.

As soon as the elevator dinged open, unleashing a new flock of buzzards onto his floor, he stepped in and tossed everyone out. "Git. Catch another."

He used the keycard he'd taken out of Reeve's pocket to override the elevator controls and sent the elevator down to the parking structure. Reeve's driver was leaning casually against a wall near the elevator drinking coffee and talking to the security guard.

"Hey, quit screwin' around. I gotta get to the air port now!" Cid barked walking quickly to the car, leaving the driver scrambling after him in a flurry of yes, sirs and right away, sirs.

**Veld**

The villagers were panicking. He couldn't blame them. First the sky turned strange, then small demons came racing down the streets, now their big brothers were chewing on the edge of town like over grown termites. The people were scampering about screaming and wailing, ignoring the people trying to herd them into the cavern towards the forest.

"Demons! Demons are attacking!"

"Help!"

"Oh dear Planet, save us!"

_Yeah._ Veld thought. _Ignore the people trying to save your dumb ass and beg for help from the Planet. That's going to work out just fine._

"Everyone, please go to the cavern and head into the forest. The demons will not go into the Sleeping Forest." One of Davies' boys yelled.

Only a few people took note and headed towards the cavern. The rest of the idiots continued to run about screaming. One fool was prying at a door, trying to break into a house, his pockets already stuffed with an assortment of stolen electronics.

"Please go to the Sleeping Forest. The forest will let you through to safety." Another boy yelled.

Veld shook his head and continued towards the edge of town where Vincent, Tseng, and Yuffie were keeping the demons back. Elena had been sent ahead of the refugees to deal with the malldancers and 

the idiot monster that hung out by the top of the stairs. Even Hojo was helping out, sweet talking the forest into letting the villagers pass.

That had been precious. The nutcase had squawked protest until Davies had bodily dragged him through the cavern and told him to start talking. He still looked a bit unsure about the feasibility of talking to a bunch of vegetation, but he was chattering away and no one had gotten killed yet.

The sound of gun fire could be heard over the screams of the villagers. He'd only had a few standard issue Turk hand guns and a hunting rifle. Vincent had grabbed two handguns, the rifle, and most of the ammo in his house, leaving him with a warning glare and a snippy order to get into the forest.

As if he had ever paid any attention to Vincent's glares or snippy orders before.

Not that he was going to get into the action. He knew his limits. When he had found himself unexpectedly alive after the whole Avalanche fiasco, he had calmly and deliberately walked away from his old life because he knew he was no longer able to keep up. His eyesight wasn't as sharp as it had been. His legs and back ached. His reaction time had slowed to the point that he would be a hazard to his own team in the field. He was old. The only reason he hadn't just ambled over to the first Turk he'd spotted and allowed himself to get the traditional Turk retirement (a bullet in the head) was because he had something to do.

He had to watch out for his partner.

Turk habits died hard, and the most ingrained habit was watch out for your partner. The younger Turks, they didn't keep to it as much, but the older ones, like him, could no more stop watching their partners back than they could stop their hearts beating. He blamed those team building exercises where you'd get blinded for three months and got handed over to your partner, who had to take care of your useless self while still carrying a full workload. Nothing like standing in a firefight, unable to see, and knowing that your partner was your only hope for keeping your pathetic ass alive.

He'd gotten lucky. He'd been partnered with Vincent. Many young Turks never made it through that trip to hell. Some saw it as a way to get rid of a pesky new kid. Some got careless and let their partner take bullets. Others treated it like a joke, tormenting their blind charge unmercifully, only to be on the receiving end when the roles got reversed and their once blind partner was in control. Amazing how the jokers never made it far in the Turks.

Vincent had kept him alive. For those three endless, helpless months Vincent had watched over his every step, protected him, soothed his jumpy nerves, even took hits for him when he was tripping over his feet in the middle of a fire fight. When it had been Vincent's turn to waltz through hell blind, he did everything he could to return the favor, and after it was over, they were so close they practically dreamed each other's dreams.

He'd kept tabs on Vincent through the years. He'd put his own sensors and taps in the crypt so that he could keep a careful watch over his partner. A few times a year he'd drag himself back to that hell hole to make an inspection.

He knew Hojo wasn't doing it. The man was barely able to keep track of himself. It didn't take a psychologist to recognize that the scientist was completely insane. Anyone who bumped into the man knew it: the mumbling, the jittery hand gestures, the not quite there stare, the sudden switches from vacant obliviousness to sharp focused, almost giddy viciousness. For someone who had known him before Gast got his slimy hands on him, it was even more obvious. Vincent's happy, smiling, sweet lover had gotten his mind chewed to pieces in Nibelheim. The chances of him managing to find Nibelheim, getting down to the crypt, and making even a cursory inspection were absolutely nil. The few times he had been dragged back to the town, Hojo had turned into a catatonic mess.

He could hear the difference between the weapons now, the sharper snap of Tseng's gun counter pointing Vincent's gun's duller retorts. Vincent was using both hand guns at the same time, and he could guess by the patterning of the shots that Tseng was trying for quality shots to more vital areas while Vincent was trying to keep the enemy behind a line. He wished Vincent had left him the rifle. He might not be able to get down on the front line with the others, but he could have slipped up to one of the domed roofs and taken sniper shots.

Fewer people were around him now. Most had vacated the area for the other side of town. In the distance he could still hear the boys calling instructions to the panicked. The sounds of screaming and wailing had diminished, but now the growls and snarls of demons took their place.

He slipped up a few streets, killing a few smaller creatures that lurked behind in the scattered camps the homeless had set up in the alleys. A few bodies of villagers who hadn't been fast enough to escape the first demons scattered here and there. They were lucky that there hadn't been more. While the boys weren't much good in combat, they'd had plenty of practice hunting and the small demons of the first wave had only managed to get through the first few blocks of buildings before getting killed by a barrage of well placed shots and materia blasts.

He managed to get through the last set of buildings and crouch at the end of an alley to see what was now surrounding the village. It wasn't good. He wasn't sure what those monsters were, some of Hojo's more insane creations had looked more coherent than these things, but he could recognize a losing battle. There were too many, and the bullet strikes only slowed them. Yuffie's throwing star created a bit of damage, but with the sheer amount of new enemies swarming slowly toward the town, the few she managed to topple over were quickly replaced by three others.

"I'm nearly out of ammo." Veld heard Tseng call.

"Doesn't matter. We'll pull back to a secondary position." Vincent sounded calm, nearly bored. "Yuffie, keep an eye on the right."

"Got it!" She wasn't as bouncy as she'd been before. During the first part of the battle, she'd been leaping about like a cheerleader on speed, now she was panting, sweating, and each swing of her Conformer was getting slower. She was still hanging in there though. Gordo had better be proud of that kid. She was worth a hundred of him.

Veld shifted back, heading for the store. Davies had ammunition stored in a back locker. He'd be able to get Tseng some and get it back here in moments. The sudden change of the pattern of Vincent's shots alerted him that something was going on. He slipped back to the mouth of the alley.

Tseng was down. A monster that looked like the horrid love child of an elfadunk and a giant squid had come to the front of the demons and was lashing about with its long whiplike arms. Vincent was standing over Tseng firing at the monster while Yuffie tried to take off some of those arms.

"Fall back." Vincent scooped up Tseng. "It can't fit through the houses."

"Vincent… Vincent, my love… why are you doing this?" A voice sing-songed sweetly from the demons.

Lucrecia stepped forward, smiling softly, lovingly, her voice a soft caress. "Vincent, I've been so worried."

Vincent didn't bother with words. He fired a few shots in her direction and, herding Yuffie before him, retreated into the alleys. Lucrecia hissed and ducked, a few of her demons stepping around her and taking the shots, protecting her from harm.

Veld melted back, paralleling Vincent and Yuffie's race through the streets. They dodged and wove through alleys and rubble strew streets. The sound of the demons crashing into the buildings behind them like a tide drowned out the faint cries of the villagers who still raced around lost in their own fear.

"I'm okay. Let me down." Tseng's voice sounded breathy but Veld could hear the scrap of his shoes as he was lowered.

"Status." Vincent's voice was still calm.

"I'm good." Yuffie panted. "Just needed a small breather."

"Out of ammo." Tseng still sounded off. "Probably a few broken ribs."

"I'm low, but not seriously." Vincent paused. "If we retreat to the store, we can get ammo and potions."

"Too close to the cavern entrance." Tseng's voice was papery, thin. "They'll need more time."

Veld melted softly out of the darkness into Vincent's view, keeping out of Tseng's by staying at the man's back. Vincent scowled at him. Veld grinned and nodded to the store, only to get another scowl and a terse nod.

He doubted his presence was a surprise. Partners were partners, even if they had gotten old and decrepit. Besides, Tseng was out there, and jokes aside, that was his kid. He'd trained him. He'd carefully groomed him to take his place. He'd soothed that young rookie's nerves, bullied his ego into shape, and knocked the rough edges off until the kid had become a jewel. Even old man Shinra had been impressed. Too bad that ass Heidegger hadn't. Maybe if he had, he'd still be alive.

He sped as fast as he could to the store, barely pausing to snag the locker key hidden behind the coffee counter before heading towards the locker.

"I said everyone out! Didn't…" Davies appeared in the door. "Oh."

"Is everyone through yet?" Veld crammed ammunition into his pockets. He guessed by the sound of Tseng's gun that the younger man was still using the same gun he'd given him on his promotion to Field Leader.

"Nearly. Only a few looters remain." Davies waved a hand. "Tell the others to pull back. I'm not letting anyone die for idiots."

Veld nodded. "I'll let them know. You get through the cavern and I'll be right after you."

"Okay." Davies hesitated. "Take care, old friend."

"Go light on the old part." Veld brushed by. "I'm feeling my age tonight."

**Tseng**

His ears still rung. His side burned and sent sharp stabs of pain through him at odd intervals. His eyesight had a tendency to sway out of focus periodically. But what worried him most was the dull ache in his stomach, right over the old wound Sephiroth had given him years ago. He didn't want to look down, pull his shirt aside, and see what he knew would be there, a spreading bruise like mark under the scar.

Focus. That was the first thing Veld had taught him. Focus. Keep your mind on the job. Let the consequences take care of themselves. And if the consequences were bleeding to death on the inside, that would just have to take its turn.

"What do you think? Right or left?" Yuffie was peering up and down the street.

"Left." Vincent didn't hesitate. "There's a small town square there, covering the quickest routes to the caverns. We can set up a defensive line there."

Yuffie nodded and headed left. Vincent ghosted after her. Tseng leaned against a building a second longer then followed slowly, hoping the square wasn't far. By all rights, he should probably head towards the caverns and the safety of the forest. He was sure to become a liability soon, but he honestly didn't think he'd make it. He was doubting he'd make it to the square.

"Yuffie, go ahead. I want to check that alley." Vincent drifted soundlessly across the street.

Tseng barely noted his going. He focused on Yuffie and kept walking, trying to keep an eye on what was going on around him, trying to ignore the black fog that was creeping at the edge of his vision. His legs were becoming heavy and painful to lift. It felt like someone was trying to press the air out of his lungs.

Down one street. The pavement blurred, the sounds from the demons fading as he stumbled over a crack in the uneven sidewalk. Yuffie was quiet, slinking ahead, for once showing that someone had indeed trained her as a ninja with her sleek movements and silence.

"I've got ammunition for you." Vincent was at his side. "Davies said to withdraw back to the cavern."

Tseng nodded, forcing himself to raise his hand and take the clips of bullets. "Everyone is clear?"

"A few looters won't go and Davies refuses to wait." Vincent slid by, catching up to Yuffie.

Tseng nodded. Focus. Focus. One foot. Two foot. One foot. Two foot. Follow Valentine. Follow Yuffie.

The bullet clips tumbled unnoticed from his hand.

Right foot. Left foot. The world blurred then focused. Left foot. Right foot.

A shoulder slipped under his arm and he was pulled up, never noticing he'd been slumping. He blinked slowly, unable to see the face. His feet stumbled on another crack in the sidewalk and he returned his focus to his feet. They got into too much trouble if he didn't keep an eye on them.

"Vincent. You're losing him." The voice was right next to his ear, but at the same time it sounded distant.

It was a familiar voice. Veld's voice. Had he messed up on a mission again? He hated when he did that. He was going to get hauled into Veld's office and have an itemized list of all his faults, misdeeds, and screw-ups read to him, with commentary. Walk in, crawl out.

"Tseng?" That was Valentine.

He was searching for Valentine. Nice to know he found the man. Rufus would be pleased.

"Watch it. Demons." A young voice shouted and he was roughly jostled to the side.

"Get him clear." Valentine again, a soft snarl entering his voice. "He's no use here."

There was the sound of blades cutting through the air. Something close by got hit hard. He could hear the sound of flesh getting bitten by steel. The crack of a Turk pistol sounded close, nearly next to him.

"Don't make a stand." He was hauled more firmly over the shoulders he'd been leaning on. "Better to do a running fight to the caverns."

"Get moving." Valentine's voice was moving off. "We'll be behind you."

He was being pulled away, his feet stumbling along the sidewalk, unable to keep pace with the man carrying him.

"You just don't listen, do you?" Veld's voice grumbled in his ear. "How many fucking times do I have to tell you to wear body armor? The new stuff doesn't weigh you down and it won't mess up those pretty, expensive suits of yours."

Tseng mumbled a reflexive sorry, boss, feeling the world sway dizzily past.

"Yeah. Yeah. Sorry boss. Sorry, I got gutted by a mutant squid. So sorry. I'll do better next time." Veld's voice dripped sarcasm. "Would you please let a new thought into that thick head? I'll even make it simple. Body armor, good. Going bare-assed into battle, bad."

Tseng mumbled again. Feet were running up behind them.

"They're coming. Bullets and the Conformer won't stop them." Valentine's voice was smooth and professional. The world was melting into chaos, and Valentine sounded like he'd been out for a stroll. No wonder he'd been considered the best.

"Here they come!" The young voice sounded nervous.

He was being dragged off quickly, the sounds of battle erupting from behind him.

"Shit." Veld's voice was barely a whisper. "They're in front of us."

He could feel them change course. Paper rattled under foot. The smell of garbage slipped around them.

"Damn."

"Veld." Valentine's voice called softly. "Back this way."

Their course reversed.

"They're spreading out." Veld sounded winded. "I spotted two in front of us and another passing the other end of the alley."

"Blood scent." Valentine murmured. "They're tracking him."

"We better hurry then. You take him. You can run faster with him than I could."

He was suddenly lifted. The pain from his stomach muscles being compressed over his wound blacking out more of the world. The person who lifted him started running, each step jolting him farther away.

"Get moving, old man. They're coming." The young voice sounded frightened.

Feet raced across pavement in soft thuds. Behind them a slithering, hissing sound followed after.

"You two go that way. I'll lure them off." Veld was huffing and out of breath.

"No." Valentine's voice was now a breath in his ear. "Stay close."

"Just move. I'll just lead them over a few streets and be at the cavern before you." Veld was already moving away. "If they're following blood. I'll give them a new source."

"How…?"

"Just get moving. The more time we waste the closer they're getting."

"Veld."

They were running again. Only one set of footsteps paced at their side.

Behind them he heard one last shot.


	9. Blame

AN: I know. I know. I could have been a bit smoother with Veld's actions in the last chapter, but I really was having a lot of problems writing that scene. It had to be there, (you'll see why later) but I really didn't like doing it, so when I reread it, I realized that I tried to write the painful (at least for me) part as briefly as I could and it didn't flow right. I'll need to come back and fix it later to show just why Veld made that choice and why Vincent decided to take Tseng to safety.

Now a Monster

Chapter 9: Blame

* * *

**Vincent**

What had I done?

I left him.

I left my partner.

I should have stopped him.

I should have questioned that plan.

I should have noticed, realized…

What had I done?

I vaguely remembered getting through the forest, depositing Tseng into Davies' arms and trying to go back through the cavern. I didn't care that demons were howling at the far end. I didn't care that Hojo was yelling at me, hauling at my arm, pleading that I stop, listen. I didn't care that Yuffie was pulling on my other arm, shrieking something in my ear. I had to go back. I had to go to Veld.

You don't leave your partner.

The trees stopped me by the simple expedient of collapsing the tunnel. Their root systems had to be through every inch of the forest, including the tunnel walls. I supposed that Hojo's screaming in panic when I wrenched my arm away and headed for the cavern alerted them to my danger and they took action. Still, I tried. The sheer wall of rock between the forest and the village might stop others, but to me it was just another obstacle. An obstacle under the rule of the trees.

I failed miserably.

I was finally pulled through the forest, down the steps, and away from Veld, or what was left of Veld. I knew demons. The most I'd find would be some shattered bones, perhaps a few scraps of cloth or a shoe.

I left him and he'd died.

I barely noticed going through the city: the people clambering in groups through the blasted gardens, huddling against crumbling walls, weeping in the doors of shell houses. Hojo was still at my side, latched 

on to my arm, tugging me forward. Davies carrying Tseng with a nearly hysterical Elena dithering at his side marched quickly ahead of me. When we got to a house, Davies carried the unconscious man upstairs and I sat numbly down on the floor, pulling my chick into my lap and hugging him to me like a doll.

What had I done?

I finally wandered back to myself. It was dawn and I was alone. I could hear Hojo's voice muttering softly just outside the door, but no one else stirred. I was in one of the smaller houses that swirled in a nautilus shape. The room was a half crescent shape with a stairway at the far, narrowing end. The walls were a soft, luminous cream, and set with the glowing spheres that lit many of the ancient's houses. The floor seemed to be made of some type of wood that had a soft gold grain to it. The only furniture in it was a small, tippsy bench that was presently doubling as a table. The only other thing was the tattered, blue blanket that was draped around my shoulders.

"Osmium. Cobalt. Titanium." Hojo was whispering to himself.

I got to my feet and walked out. He was sitting on a wall with a small plant in his fingers. He was plucking at its leaves and almost chanting to himself, wearing only a pair of briefs and an old, baggy grey sweater that looked like it had come from the dumpster behind a second hand shop. His long hair, usually tied back in a pony tail fell around his shoulders in long, tangled whips.

"Nitrogen. Carbon." He was pulling the small leaves off and dropping then on the ground at his feet.

"What are you doing?" I came over to him, eying the small pile of greens around his toes.

"Phosphorous. Oxygen." He never looked up, his eyes riveted to the dwindling plant.

"Hojo." I reached out and pulled the remains of the plant from his fingers. "Look at me."

He looked up, but didn't see me. His eyes were blank, unfocused.

"Hojo." I knelt trying to get him to see me. "Hojo."

He frowned, as if troubled by something then stood, trying to step around me. I also stood and caught him, pulling him back against me. He seemed puzzled, turning that blank look towards me, not quite understanding or connecting with the fact that he was being restrained by me. His gaze went back to the path outside the small shellhouse, and he tried to pull away. When he realized that he couldn't go forward, he tipped his head and looked confused.

I am a fool.

I lost Veld.

I lost my chick.

"Come inside. You shouldn't be out here"

I pulled him back in, sitting down again and holding him in my lap like I had before. He submitted without even a tiny protest, looking around, lost in his own world. That world was a strange place for him, his look said, and it kept doing odd things: plants disappeared, odd creatures showed up and did incomprehensible things, and nothing made sense. He just hoped things would get better soon.

"Hojo. It's all right." I bowed my head resting my forehead against his shoulder as he started tugging absently on my sleeve.

"Carbon. Helium." His voice was soft, almost rhythmic. "Calcium. "

We sat there for hours. When he finished with my sleeve, he started in on his sweater, listing chemicals mindlessly. I doubted the chemicals he listed were really a part of anything he touched, not unless his sweater had been pulled through a silver mine. I looked up as Davies came down with Bettina at his heels and saw us. The two looked worn and more than a bit rumpled.

"Good morn…" Davies trailed off as Hojo continued his litany of elements.

"He was like this when I woke up." I kept my arms around him as he reached down to the floor and picked up a shard of shell.

"Bromine. Silicon."

Bettina edged around her husband and whispered, "I'll go find the doctor."

"Better find sedatives." Davies sighed. "The doctor has other patients to deal with. A quiet, unbleeding one is going to be low on his priority list."

I had to agree, but Bettina looked stubborn and Davies shrugged as she left. Sometimes it is just better to let a headstrong partner go. With Hojo, I'd had to deal with his constant attempts to fatten me up, not really paying attention to the fact that I, like most other Turks, already ate a very high calorie diet. Even desk bound Turks spend a minimum of five hours a day running, lifting weights, drilling in martial arts, and other combat preparedness techniques. My hatchling, though, stubbornly clung to the belief that I spent my whole day eating candy bars and therefore had to have a good solid meal when I got home. Seeing that he had never learned to cook, those solid meals usually were solid, as in calcified or charred.

"I guess I'd better find something to eat." Davies gave Hojo a worried look and followed Bettina out of the house.

"Aluminum. Hydrogen. Boron."

Hojo seemed happy enough when left to his listing, so I just held him and laid my head back against his shoulder. I hadn't been there for Veld. I had left him behind, choosing to carry Tseng to safety, thinking I'd go back. I should have dumped Tseng into the nearest alley. I should have grabbed Veld and dragged him with us back to the cavern. I should have tied him up after I'd gotten my weapons and pitched him 

into the forest and let him sweet talk the trees. I should have been suspicious. I should have tried harder.

I should have been there protecting his back.

With that fresh in mind, I would stay with my chick. If I had to sit here for weeks while he wandered lost in his own mind, I'd do it. If there was any part of him that still recognized what was happening around him, I wanted him to know that I was here, that he was safe. He once did the same for me.

I looked up as Elena came down the stairs, her short blond hair sticking up in jagged spikes that Cloud would have been proud of. Her face was pale and her eyes were puffy with a bruised look to them. She paused a moment, listening to the continuing review of the periodical chart, then shrugged. I guessed that having been around Hojo she might have gotten used to him.

"How is Tseng?" I felt I should at least take a minimal interest in the man I sacrificed so much for, but it was an effort. Part of me resented his presence upstairs.

"Better." She looked around, smothering a yawn. "He isn't awake yet, but they got a potion down him in time to stop the internal bleeding." She walked over to the door and blinked out at the morning. "Is there any water around?"

"Ask Davies. He's outside." I watched her leave then reached for the blanket. My chick had to be cold. While the city is much warmer than Bone Village, it wasn't warm enough for Hojo to be wearing nothing more than underwear and a ratty sweater. I wondered where his clothes were and if there was any possibility of getting him some pants. I'd have to ask Davies when he returned.

My chick latched onto the blanket when I pulled it over his legs. Holding it in both hands as if it was going to be ripped away, leaving him bereft and adrift in a strange land. "Chlorine, cadmium, argon, antimony." He sounded worried.

"I know. It will be all right." I kissed his ear and stroked his tangled hair. "I'm here. I'll take care of it."

I heard Yuffie rustle a round upstairs for a moment but she didn't appear. I wasn't surprised. She'd fought well yesterday and was probably still tired. I doubted I'd see her till late in the afternoon. When we had been hunting Sephiroth, she would often sleep in later than the others after a hard fight, her young body demanding sleep (1). She always tried to pass it off, making it a joke to hide the fact that she was exhausted. Cid would chime in about being a lazy ass teen, and she'd run with it until no one thought about it. Except me and probably Cid.

"Mendelevium, neon, astatine." Hojo had pulled the blanket up around his chin, hugging it to himself."Copper, hafnium, meitnerium."

Davies came in with Elena at his heals and a steaming bowl in his hands. "I thought you might like something."

Oatmeal. I was definitely not giving up my hold on my chick for a bowl of oatmeal, no matter how hard it might have been to get it. I shook my head and nodded up the stairs. "Yuffie needs that more than me."

Davies glowered at me. "Eat it. I'll keep an eye on him." He nodded to Hojo who was muttering about gold and magnesium.

I glowered back refusing to let oatmeal come between me and my chick. Not understanding the epic struggle, and probably not caring if she did, Elena watched us a few moments then walked up the stairs, a chipped mug of water in her hands to keep an eye on Tseng. I might fault her on a number of other Turk skills, but today she was completely eclipsing me with her devotion to her partner. It had taken a direct order from Tseng, as her superior, to make her leave his side and help the people through to the city.

Davies knelt down. "Look. Your friends are here, and I may not live in Edge or Junon and get all the latest gossip, I do know they," he nodded behind himself toward the door, "don't like him." He nodded at my chick. "It would be better if you let me take him and go deal with them. I'll keep him safe."

I wanted to protest, but in the long run, it would keep Hojo safer if I detoured Avalanche away from him until I eased them into his presence. My abrupt change from rabidly despising him to being willing to kill all of them to keep him safe and happy would need time to sink in. Many in Avalanche had personal encounters with Hojo that had been less than pleasant, and the things I'd said in the past only solidified their hatred. I should go and meet them, deflect some of the damage, or failing that assess whether I should get my chick to safety.

But I didn't want to leave him. I left Veld and look what happened.

I should have stayed. I should have questioned that great plan of his. I should have realized that he was getting old, getting slow. Where was he going to find a blood trail in the middle of an evacuated city? Just luck onto one of those looters? Wouldn't that have been convenient? Wouldn't that have been neat? Just grab a looter and say listen here, I need someone to start bleeding, so let me shoot you and then you can run off and let the demons eat you, okay? and problem solved.

I'm a fool.

"Vincent. This is no time to brood." Davies sounded angry. "Bettina's keeping them busy, but they'll be here soon. Let me have him."

He tried to pull him out of my arms, but I held on, glaring at him. I didn't want to leave him, not when he was so helpless, so lost.

"Stop thinking of yourself, Vincent." His voice snarled at me, his words startling me out of my thoughts. "Go distract them. I'll take him to the small conch house across the street." He pulled again and I let go.

It felt as if he'd ripped my chest open and took a few vital organs with him as he scooped up Hojo and ducked out the door. I stumbled to my feet and followed after, watching as he disappeared into the 

small house. Now I was lost. No Veld. No Hojo. Just me and a city of the dead inhabited by the frightened.

"Hey! Hey, Vince!"

I turned and saw Cid waving as he spotted me. Cloud, Tifa, and a tall black haired man were at his heels. I checked to see if there was any sign of Davies, but the shell house looked empty. Bettina was a few paces behind them looking irritated. I made a small soothing gesture to her and I went to greet my friends.

"Vincent!" Tifa hurried forward, reaching out a hand to touch my arm. "We were so worried. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Tifa." I winced as Cid came up and thumped me a few times on the back to show his approval of my good health.

Cloud was nice enough to keep his distance and content himself with giving me a nod. The dark haired man grinned at me, as if he somehow knew me and approved. While he looked somewhat familiar, I couldn't place him.

"We thought you were…" Tifa bit her lip. "Your demons…they were in Cosmo Canyon."

Cosmo Canyon? How? I thought they'd gone back to their own place in the lifestream. How could they be in Cosmo Canyon without me? Lucrecia. It had to be her. "You saw them?"

"I did." Cloud looked at me, troubled. "Death Gigas nearly crushed me and I know I saw the others too."

I bowed my head, missing my cloak at that moment. The high collar was perfect to hide behind for a moment of reflection. The fact that it was also rather comfortable and quite weather resilient was also a plus. I supposed I could find a tailor to make me another, but for the moment, I quietly missed it.

"We thought you'd fuckin' bought it Vince." Cid waved a hand. "Didn't expect you up here."

I got a bit of a surprise when Tifa turned to him and frowned.

"The diary said Hojo would bring him here." Tifa poked him in the chest with one slender finger. "We should have come up here and checked ourselves."

The diary? They'd read the diary? Cloud was nodding his head in agreement with Tifa. Even the dark haired man was looking as if he agreed. Did everyone know about the diary? The newest paperback best seller to hit the stands in Edge? Wonderful. The lowest point of my life had become reading fodder. When my chick woke up, we were going to have a small chat about his literary aspirations.

"Where is he?" Cloud looked around. "Is he here?"

I frowned and kept silent.

"Vincent, you are okay, aren't you? He didn't hurt you did he?" Tifa, still attached to my arm, looked at me more carefully.

The temptation to leap to my chick's defense was there, but it was overwritten by the knowledge that if they knew he was here, they might just do a door to door search for him. Still, Yuffie had to have seen him when they came through the forest. As soon as the teen was up, she'd tell them. I carefully weighed truth and convenient fiction. I might be able to buy some time with a distracting lie then get Hojo clear. However, with his present state of mind and the army of demons lurking to the south, it would be a problem. He wasn't up to a trip through the snow canyons, and leading him through the demons was also out. I decided on the truth. It was simpler, and I could still take measures to keep them away from Hojo. If the worst came, I could always retreat back into the forest and let the trees cover out escape.

"Vincent?" Tifa looked worried.

"The diary was true." I pulled my arm away. "He wouldn't hurt me."

"Are you sure?" Cid looked at me calmly.

It was an odd reaction. Tifa was looking startled at being so close to the world's most evil scientist. Cloud looked nervously around, as if Hojo was going to leap out at him and drag him back to a mako tank. The black haired man's grin was gone and he was watching Cloud carefully. Cid, however, seemed only curious, as if just checking a fact to make sure he knew something before making a decision.

"Yes." I kept my eye on him. "I remembered."

"Good." Cid pulled a cigarette out and lit it. "Never did like you runnin' about not knowin' what really happened to ya."

Not a shining endorsement, but it was better than nothing.

"But Vincent…" Tifa was now looking like she'd try that door to door search I'd been worried about. "He…he experimented on Cloud and he…"

"I know." I stepped back, giving myself more room to move in case it was needed. "He's not… well."

"Vincent." Cloud's voice was barely above a whisper. "Do you know if everything in that diary was true?"

He looked frightened. For a man who faced down Sephiroth at his insane worst, his fear was enough to make me pause for a second. What could frighten Cloud? I know he'd faced Hojo during the Sephiroth crisis and hadn't shown any fear, just confusion. What about my chick could frighten him? It wasn't as if Hojo was a great fighter. At best, he was passably competent with a small handgun at close range.

"I don't know." I noticed Cid looking at Cloud thoughtfully. "I only know the parts I was present for."

Cid puffed softly watching Cloud a second more. "I guess, you'll just have to ask him when you see him."

Tifa turned away frowning and waving her hand as if brushing something away. "It doesn't matter. It's probably just lies. We should find him and make sure he doesn't do anything like that again."

I didn't like the way that sounded. I took another step back and started gauging my options. I only had a few. Fight or flee. In a fight, I'd have a few problems. Cid was easy enough to deal with if he tried to attack, as would Tifa. Without his spear, which was notably absent, Cid, like Tifa, had to rely on his fists. I have yet to see a fight outside of the movies where fists won out over bullets. Cloud would be a problem, as would his friend who had all the markings of a Soldier with his well developed muscles and glowing mako eyes. I'd have to try for quick kill shots to the head. Or I could run.

"Tif, did you listen to anything Vince said?" Cid pulled his cigarette out of his mouth and dropped it, stomping it out with the heel of his boot. "He just told you that diary was true. Now, if that diary is true, how do you think Vince here feels about you sayin' things like that about the guy who tried to save his sorry ass?"

"I…I…" She looked at me then quickly shifted her gaze away. Tifa was a good woman, not always the brightest woman, but a good one. Her main problem, besides her abysmal taste in men, was her inability to really empathize with anyone in any meaningful way. In a way, she was a lot like Hojo was at the moment, lost in her own world. Anyone who would scold a man dying from a painful, incurable disease about being depressed has major, reality coping problems. Luckily for her, Cloud also lived in his own little world and probably missed all the implications.

Cid turned away. "We got enough problems. We don't need bad blood between us." He stepped forward towards me, his blue eyes noting how I had shifted into a more defensive position. "Besides, we need his help, Vince. He's the only one that ever dealt with demons before."

I took his comment for what it was, a way to calm me down. Tifa was still shifting around caught between vague guilt for upsetting me and her learned hatred of Hojo. Cloud continued to look frightened and upset, even as his friend pulled him aside and started speaking to him in a soft whisper, telling him that everything was fine, they'd talk to Hojo and get it all straightened out, nothing had changed.

I eyed Cid carefully and shifted away again, keeping an eye on everyone. "He can't help. He was hurt in the attack."

"Serious?" Cid patted his pockets absently, looking for a cigarette. "I'm not kiddin' Vince. We need him."

I took a few steps back, motioning Cid to follow, getting away from Tifa. With Cloud acting odd, her only way to cope was to target the most likely thing that was troubling him, Hojo. Cid on the other hand was, behind his cursing and cigarette fumes, a thoughtful, intelligent man. I could feel the situation out with Cid and decide on a course of action.

"I don't know if it's serious." I kept my voice down. "But I won't put him in danger."

Cid glanced back over his shoulder to where Tifa was now standing with Cloud and the dark haired man. "She's a bit high strung right now. Cloud's got his head fucked up again and she's lookin' for something to unfuck it."

"Still…"

"Keep him away from them, and I'll keep them away from him." Cid found a cigarette and lit it with a practiced flip of his hand. "But, I want to speak with him. We got questions about those demons that need answering."

I weighed that. Cid was offering me a way to keep Hojo safe and the small concession that he requested was reasonable. I wouldn't let them take Hojo out of my care, but someone asking him questions about those demons wouldn't be threatening, at least as long as I was in control of the situation.

"Agreed. I'll let you know when he's able to talk to you." I accepted his offer and stepped away. I wanted to go back to my chick.

"Vince." Cid nodded. "I'll stop in later and talk. There's some things we gotta go over after I get these people all rounded up."

I looked around. The villagers had already settled into the city. I could see smoke from cook fires, people walking calmly between the shellhouses waving and calling, a few of the village children were clearing off a patch of land for a game, and some of the archaeologists were already inspecting their new surroundings with small shovels and intent expressions. "You might consider leaving them here. The forest won't let the demons in and a few charges in the back caverns would cover that entrance."

"Huh?" Cid looked confused for a second then started looking around. After a few moments, he nodded. "Maybe you're right. They do look right at home, don't they." He scratched his chin. "Ya know. That might work out really well. Junon's gettin' crowded and Edge is almost burstin' at the seams. I could get supplies up here and they'd be set."

He hummed to himself, a stream of smoke coiling around his head, as he walked over to the others. I stepped away, sliding towards the nautilus shellhouse. I'd have to wait a few minutes till the others disappeared, then I'd go collect my hatchling. I was almost at the door when Bettina caught up to me.

"They're off to the other part of the city. Looks like their heading for the main building." She frowned at their backs.

I nodded. "They mean well."

She huffed a second then looked around the city street. "I like that idea you had. We could stay here. Living in a shell is better than a skull, and the weather is nice."

"Cid will bring supplies." I glanced across the street to where my chick was still being kept hidden. I then looked to where the others were almost out of sight and gauged the chances that I could go to my chick 

without giving away his location. When my friends disappeared around a turn heading towards the west side of the city, I went over.

"Neon, terbium, dysprosium. Ulp."

I stepped in to find Davies feeding Hojo the oatmeal I'd successfully avoided. He was managing it by the simple expedient of stuffing it in my hatchling's mouth as he continued his elemental monologue. This seemed to confuse him, but he swallowed the pasty stuff without complaint. Considering how many times he tried to shovel the stuff down my throat every time I got so much as a slight sniffle, I appreciated the irony.

"Are they gone yet?" Davies scraped the last of the oatmeal out of the bowl and as Hojo muttered lutecium, popped it into his mouth.

"They're headed for the main building." I sat down and pulled my chick back into my lap.

He blinked at me as if I'd done something astounding then continued his litany. He didn't look as worried as he had earlier, so, after a quick check to sooth myself that he was as okay as he could be, I relaxed a small bit. He settled himself against me and with an almost please look, mumbled a few more elements.

"They're thinking of leaving us here in the city." Bettina came in with a small pile of clothes that she set down next to me.

Davies nodded and stood up. "I think I'll go encourage that. Some of the boys have already set out survey lines." He went out, only pausing a second to peck a quick kiss on Bettina's cheek before disappearing.

"I'm going to go make sure the others are doing well. Your friend Yuffie will probably need some breakfast." She looked thoughtful for a second, making lists in her head of things to do.

"Yuffie will probably sleep. She fought hard." I watched her nod and cluck to herself a few more seconds then with a last decisive nod leave.

Hojo had already discovered the pile of clothing and was fingering a pair of drawstring pants. The blanket still clutched firmly in one hand. "Hassium? Indium? Dubnium?" He sounded curious.

I pulled the pile closer and he smiled as his fingers wandered through the worn cotton shirts, clean but stained socks, khaki colored pants with worn knees, and threadbare underwear.

"Holmium, Technetium. Palladium. Barium." He pulled a shirt out of the pile and started smoothing it against his knee. "Lithium. Ytterbium. Seaborgium."

"Are you cold?" I ran my fingers under his sweater, trying to feel if his skin felt chilled. It didn't and he ignored my question, so I leaned back against the shell wall and let my chick prattle.

I could see the nautilus shellhouse across the street and after an hour Elena emerged. She looked around then quickly raced off towards the west. I wondered if Tseng was doing well, but a few moments later Yuffie, stretching and yawning, appeared to look blearily around the street before shuffling back in, most likely heading back to bed. She didn't look particularly concerned, so I guessed Tseng was still recovering.

"Sulfur. Osmium. Bismuth." Hojo hummed to himself.

"Yes. Everything is fine." I stroked his cheek with my fingers. "You don't have to worry."

"Tantalum. Erbium." He agreed.

Elena came back with Cloud, Tifa, Cid, and the dark haired man in tow. I could faintly hear their raised voices as they greeted Yuffie, her protesting squawk as Cid did something to ruffle her feathers, and a sudden string of curses from Cid as Yuffie retaliated. Silence settled over the street again, but I kept my eyes on the other house.

"Tungsten?" Hojo pushed the pile of clothes aside and was reaching for the bowl Davies had left sitting on the floor. "Indium?"

I caught the bowl with my foot and pulled it over so he could reach it. "Yes. You can look at that."

He pulled the bowl onto his lap and touched the remnants of oatmeal that still clung to the inside. "Fermium."

I turned back to the house and found that Cid was now standing outside the nautilus, leaning against the wall, and smoking. I couldn't see the others, but with a bit of concentration, I could hear their voices from inside the shellhouse. I considered that for awhile, then got up, carefully cradling my chick, his blanket, and his bowl against me and headed up the stairs. If I could hear them, then it was more than possible that Cloud or his friend could hear Hojo. The more insulation between them and my chick the better I would feel.

Hojo seemed irritated about the move though and wiggled away from me when I set him down. "Tellurium." He gave me a small glare, got up, and went to sit over next to a wall with bowl and blanket held protectively close. "Cerium. Gadolinium. Bohrium."

I guessed I just got told off. I nodded back. "You are right. I should have asked first, but we needed to move."

"Holmium. Thulium." He muttered and refused to look at me.

"I'm sorry." I sat down on a bed that was next to the door. "I will ask next time."

He took a few deep shaky breaths and then returned to his contemplation of the bowl. I heard someone come in downstairs, but the tread was too heavy to be Cloud or Tifa. I would have liked to go down and check, but I wasn't going to leave Hojo. Instead, I pulled out the gun Veld had given me, checked to 

make sure the few bullets I'd had left from yesterday were loaded, and got ready in case my chick needed some quick defense from an intruder.

"Hey, Vince? You in there?" I heard Cid call from downstairs. I glanced over to where my hatchling was still sulking on the floor grumbling elements to himself.

"Cid." I got up and stepped to the top of the stairs. "What are you doing here?"

"I guessed you'd be nearby." He came to stand at the foot of the stairs, looking up at me. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened down south without the others around." He looked around. "Is it okay to come up there?"

I considered a moment then nodded. Perhaps it would be better to use this opportunity. With Hojo acting as he was, Cid could see and perhaps understand that my chick was more in need of someone to care for him than to be punished.

I walked over to my fledgling and gently urged him to his feet. "Come sit with me."

He looked uncertain but allowed me to pull him over to another bed and sit him down next to me as Cid came in the room.

"Now Vince, I know…" Cid paused looking at Hojo, who was still looking uncertain and mumbling about gold, beryllium, and radon. "Uhhh… Okay. Wanna tell me what the fuck is going on Vince?"

I gave him a sideways look. "I told you. He was hurt."

Hojo let the bowl fall to the floor with a thump and pulled his blanket closer. "Lanthanum?" He sounded frightened. "Erbium."

I slid an arm around him and settled him closer to me. "Don't worry. I'm right here."

"Curium." He pulled his feet off the floor and huddled under the blanket. "Florine."

Cid watched for awhile as I tried to sooth my chick. He seemed unsure. "Vince, this ain't hurt. This is fuckin' nuts."

I gave him a level stare. "He was fine until I…"

Until I upset him. Until I tried to go back through the cavern to Veld. My mistakes kept piling up around me. I left Veld and I lost him. I tried to go back and undo my mistake, too late, and I caused my already unstable chick to become even more unstable. Demons that were once trapped inside of me were terrorizing the world. The woman I had betrayed my chick for was leading them. My friends were looking at me doubtfully, and all I could do was watch everything fall through my fingers.

"Until you what?" Cid sat down on the bed I'd abandoned. "What did you do, Vince?"

I frowned, refusing to answer.

"You know, a lot of people think you were responsible for Costa del Sol." Cid leaned forward, his eyes intent.

"I was." I looked at Hojo who was still under his blanket watching both of us with wide uncertain eyes. "I was there." I realized I was avoiding looking at Cid and forced myself to face him. "I went to the cave to see Lucrecia and…"

"And?" Cid leaned back, giving me room.

I looked at Hojo sadly. "She stepped out of the crystal. I…" I looked guiltily away. "I was happy. After so long, we were together again. We went down to Costa del Sol." I glanced over to Cid, shaking my head. "I don't know why, but she wanted to, and I… I couldn't say no to her." I made a small gesture as if brushing something away, perhaps the memory of my idiocy. "When we got there, she… she did something and I lost control of the demons. They just rushed out and…"

"I don't suppose you remember what she did." Cid was tapping his finger against his knee thoughtfully.

I thought for a moment, trying to remember. "No. It's all blurred. Something smelled like burning herbs, and I remember her telling me to stand still, but I can't remember details."

Cid nodded. "Okay, she dragged your sorry ass down to Costa del Sol, burned some herbs, had you stand still, and the demons attacked the town. Then what?"

"She left and I followed her." I shifted over as Hojo scooted back to press against the wall next to the bed. "She went to another town, I think Gongaga, and did the same. When she said she wanted to return Chaos to me, the other demons fled. I fled, too and hid in the caves outside Junon. She tried to call me back, but I stayed hidden."

Cid bowed his head, thinking. "She was on the Eastern Contenent?"

I nodded. "I heard her there."

"Okay, keep going. What next?" He started searching his pockets for cigarette.

"Hojo came and got me. He brought me here." I motioned to out of the conch house. "We slept until, I believe, Tseng and the others woke him up. He panicked and tried to get them to chase him out of the city, pretending to be me. Barret shot him. I brought him to Bone Village and the demons attacked."

"Praseodymium?" Hojo's voice was a scared whisper.

I shifted back until I was next to him then pulled him over to sit on my lap. "Don't worry. I'm here."

"What happened during the attack?" Cid looked down the stairs towards the nautilus shellhouse. "Tseng is still out. Yuffie is barely awake, and Elena only knows about the evacuation."

I shrugged. "She came from the south. Little demons first then larger ones. Tseng got hit, and I had everyone retreat back." _And I am a fool._ I bowed my head. "One of the villagers…"

"Vince?" Cid wasn't stupid and I wasn't far enough away from the event yet to cover well. I could have probably closed my mouth and stonewalled one of the others, but Cid would sit, and like the engineer he was, tinker until he got the result he wanted. He could wait for hours.

"Veld. He was my partner when I was a Turk." I nodded towards where Tseng still slept. "Veld bought us time to get through the cavern to the forest. He didn't make it."

"Okay." Cid pause for a moment, letting me gather myself together again then glanced at Hojo. "And him?"

"He was helping get people through the forest. When I came through with Tseng, I tried to go back to Veld." I pulled my hatchling closer, as if trying to protect him from my own thoughtless actions. "He fell apart, and when I woke up this morning, he was…"

"Reciting the periodic table." Cid finished.

"Gallium. Iodine. Tin." Hojo pulled the blanket up to cover his face, hiding. "Sodium. Polonium. Molybdenum."

"Okay. Got it." Cid finally found his cigarette pack and glowered at it unhappily. "Thanks, Vince. I know that was a fuckin' speech for you."

I nodded, not meeting his eyes. He sat and smoked for a few minutes, watching me. I could feel his gaze, but this time I couldn't look up to meet it. My sins started with pure stupidity and ended in mass murder. I could only wonder what his judgment was going to be.

"Ya know. Reeve collapsed." Cid startled me, and I reflexively looked up. He was staring at the tip of his cigarette. "He left me in charge for some dumb ass reason."

I could name a few dozen without trying hard. I quietly applauded Reeve's choice.

"Anyway. That means 'til he gets back on his feet, I gotta make all the fuckin' annoyin' decisions for WRO." Cid puffed a few times on his cigarette, looking peeved. "An as the person makin' the fuckin' decisions, I'm deciding that you may be the most sorry assed fucker on the Planet, but ya ain't responsible for what happened down south." He puffed a few more times as I wondered if Cid had taken any odd medication recently since I certainly was responsible for what happened down south. "I'm also declaring that he," Cid pointed to the blanket draped, mumbling bundle in my arms, "is off limits. It's bad enough that we've got Sephiroth in custody, we don't need a complete set."

"Sephiroth?" _My son?_ I looked down at my chick. _Our son._

"Yep. That guy hanging around Cloud is that guy Zack the kid was always going on about." Cid paused to blow a rather nice smoke ring. "He says that Lucrecia dragged them out of the lifestream and I think he," he again motioned to Hojo, "might be the only one that can figure out this mess."

I agreed. It didn't mean I was going to trust them with my fledgling, but I agreed with his assessment of Hojo's knowledge. I was sure Lucrecia feared it. Someplace in Hojo's broken mind, he knew about demons. He'd been there when they'd been fused with me. In his struggle to undo Lucrecia's madness, he'd even inadvertently created three of them. He also knew a lot about Jenova and mako. In many ways, my hatchling was more of a threat to her than myself, Avalanche, WRO, and Shinra together. We had weapons and fighting skill, but he knew how to use them.

What had an instructor once told me? An un-aimed gun is not just useless but dangerous as well.

Cid sat an enjoyed his cigarette a few more moments watching dust motes float slowly through the room. My hatchling finally calmed down and peeked out from his blanket with a few mumbled elements. When nothing happened to upset him, he started tugging gently on the bedding while softly murmuring about vanadium.

"I don't suppose you'd come back with us?" Cid kept his voice down, watching Hojo.

"No." I loosened my hold on my chick to allow him to pull the pillow over to be inspected. "Not until he is better."

"Hmm." Cid went back to his smoking for a moment then paused again. "Can I send some files up about what's going on? If he gets his head back together, he could look at them."

"Yes. I will look them over, too."

"Good." He got up and walked down the stairs, leaving me and Hojo. "I'm heading out. I'll keep the others away, but either Shera or I'll be back in a day or two with the supplies." His footsteps clomped through the lower level of the house then faded as he reached the street.

"Arsnic. Promethium. Mercury." Hojo pulled the pillow to him and hugged it.

"Yes. It is going to be fine." I sat back, resting. I had a feeling it was going to be a long time until my chick came back to me.

* * *

Please review! I've loved hearing from all of you, and even if I can't respond personally to the people who aren't signed on, I want to say I appreciate your comments both here and in Once a Man! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

(1) Only after I got out of my teen years did I find out that teens need more sleep than adults. Where adults need about eight hours of sleep a night, teens need twelve because of all the growth and hormonal changes their bodies go through. No wonder I was always dragging myself home and flopping on the couch. I wasn't, as I was often accused of, being lazy. I was exhausted. I believed the eight hour rule and was four hours of sleep short every night for years. No wonder I was hazy in my morning classes, barely functional after four, and was an emotional train wreck. Continuous sleep deprivation does that.


	10. Fall

I'm going on vacation in a few days, so my already slow writing is going to be even slower for awhile.

Now a Monster

Chapter 10: Fall

* * *

**Zack**

Zack leaned forward leaning his arms across the back of the folding chair he was perched on. "So Cloud is coming apart." He shook his head. "I just don't know what to do Seph. He won't listen to me when I say it's okay and stuff. He just gets all wild eyed and mopey."

Seph laying back on his cell cot nodded. "Hojo said he was delicate." He flipped through the sheaf of papers he was reading to the part he was referring to. "It clearly says don't tell him that. He needs to have the illusion that he is the original, Cloud Strife. Considering Hojo basically created this version of Cloud, I'd say he knew what he was writing about."

"I don't suppose it says how to fix him?" Zack tipped the chair to lean closer to the cell bars that separated him from his friend.

"Not yet, but I'm only to the part where Father has just come back from the dead." Sephiroth's voice lingered over the word father, tasting it, trying it out, feeling how it slid over his tongue. He wasn't sure if it fit yet, but it was an interesting word to say. To date, the only family that he could even semi-claim was an insane alien who had used a moment of weakness to turn him into a monster. While having a father that had hunted him down and assisted killing him wasn't an ideal family he'd dreamed of, it was better than the female side of the line. He still was contemplating how he was feeling about Hojo. He had to admit that part of him was relieved to know he was only Hojo's adoptive/step-son and not a blood relation as he had once feared. He'd always had a lurking fear of congenital insanity. Not that learning that his mother was basically a sociopathic loony was entirely comforting, but at least she was human, which was an improvement.

"Oh." Zack slumped despondently, though his eyes had sharpened after his friend's comment studying the small curve of his friend's lips, listening to the shifts in tone of his voice, contemplating the small hesitation of Sephiroth's fingers as he flipped to the page he'd been on previously.

"Try asking Hojo. If Father is with him, he might be safe enough to approach." Sephiroth started reading again.

"Cid says that he's completely nuts right now: hiding under blankets, reciting the periodic table…" Zack watched Sephiroth noting the tiny little details that others might miss that indicated that the man was both reading and listening to him intently.

Sephiroth only nodded and continued reading, "That's not too bad. He's been worse."

"Cid said he sent some files up to them to him to, ya know, do the science thing with the demons." Zack's lips twitched into a smile as Sephiroth involuntarily made a small annoyed twitch with his fingers at the annoying ya know. "He said that Vincent would look them over too."

"Zack, go away." Sephiroth flipped a page. "I'd rather be locked up alone, thank you."

"Hey, we're working on that." Zack looked offended. "We'll have you out in no time."

Sephiroth didn't even bother to look over. He continued reading placidly. "I'd rather stay here. It's quite restful."

"Come on, Seph. It's fun! If you don't mind the demons, things are really great." Zack waved his hand expansively. "We've got all sorts of things to look at. Remember Tifa, well, she's got a bar and all these great people hang around there. Cid's lots of fun. You really should go look at the _Shera_. It's all curvy." Zack's hands smoothed curves out of the air. "And do you remember Reeve and his robotic cats? Well, Reeve's sorta…uhhhh…not feeling to great right now so his robotic cats are all running around in a panic."

Sephiroth's teeth ground together. "That's great Zack, now get lost."

Zack grinned, "But I haven't told you about the new Turk girl, Elena. She's cute."

"Aren't you involved with that Ancient, Aeris?" Sephiroth flipped a page. "And Turks are not cute."

"She's cute." Zack tipped his head back. "Aeris knows me saying a girl is cute doesn't mean anything. Lots of girls are cute. Hey, your cute too. That doesn't mean I'm going to jump you and dump Aer."

"You've lost your mind Zack." Sephiroth glanced over at him. "Your trip to and from the lifesteam seems to have made you lose what miniscule, infinitesimally small, nearly microscopic sense you once possessed." He sighed. "I'd tell the jailors that you should probably be locked up for your own good, but they'd probably put you in that cell across from mine."

"Your only saying that because of your traumatic childhood." Zack looked sympathetic. "It must have been hard to have a father that was buried in a coffin under a mansion."

"I managed. Now lose yourself." Sephiroth returned to reading the diary.

"Aww. You don't mean that." Zack dropped his head till his chin rested on the back of the folding chair.

"Trust me, I mean that."

The heavy door at the end of the hall swung open and Cloud stepped through. He paused a second looking at Zack, then strode forward with an intent, worried look on his face. "Zack, I'd like you to come look at something. It looks sort of like that weird aurora that Elena told us about from Bone Village. It's moving in from the west. A few WRO scientists are studying it, but I'd like your opinion."

Sephiroth looked over, his eyebrows drawing together worriedly. "Are we under attack?"

Cloud shook his head. "She'd be a fool to try. Most of WRO's forces are stationed around the city, and we've had time to prepare for this situation. We're already moving forces in to intercept her if she attacks."

Zack looked doubtful but nodded and stood up. "Okay, I'll go look." He glanced over to Sephiroth and gave him a small nod. "Don't worry. If anything happens, I'll let you know." He grinned at Cloud and ambled over to throw an arm around the blonde's shoulder. "He hates to be left out of things."

Cloud nodded. "If anything happens, I'll come get you myself."

Zack could almost hear the crew that handled surveillance on Sephiroth's cell have a coronary. The sound of arteries slamming shut after suddenly having to deal with the stress that hearing Cloud would come get Sephiroth if anything happened was almost deafening. "I'll come too. I've always wanted to do a jail break. Can we wear masks?" Zack picked up his Butterfly Edge sword and scabbard and swung it to rest on his back.

"Just leave me here, thanks." Sephiroth reclined back on his cot. "If I have to deal with him, I can't be held responsible for the well being of innocent civilians."

"Hey, I'm now a civilian." Zack looked mournful.

"You haven't been innocent since you were three, so you're a target." Sephiroth calmly started reading again.

"Awww. Seeepppphhhh." Zack started whining as Cloud hauled him from the holding cell block. A jittery, slightly wild-eyed guard at the door made Zack start humming happily to himself as he was yanked unceremoniously down the hall by a very focused Cloud.

Being alive again was tons of fun. He'd have to suggest it to Aeris next time he was at the church. She was probably too busy to get herself back to the mortal realm, but he could try.

**Veld**

It wasn't the best day of his life. Being captured by a large, rotting, green thing with bolts sticking out of its neck had ranked pretty low on his having-a-wonderful-time list. Meeting up with Lucrecia hadn't been all that great either. Who knew a psycho slut had such a good memory. Suddenly finding himself tossed into a rather nasty looking cage with a rather insane looking Barret Wallace had definitely been a low point, especially when Wallace decided that he had to assert his male territorial rights by trying to chew on his foot. But the absolute worst, most horrifying thing was the simple, terrible thought that had crossed his mind the last time Lucrecia came in to look them over.

He had thought she looked like an angel.

He suddenly wanted a mirror. He had the horrid notion that if he looked at himself, he'd resemble that old photo of Hojo, when the poor ass had been drugged into marrying that lying bitch: the glassy, not even a quarter there eyes; the dim witted, befuddled look; the lurking fear that something was wildly wrong someplace, but he was too far gone to know what it was.

That would be the only moment to top this one, and he saw no way out of it. She had to have given him a drug, probably something along the lines of one of those he'd used on foreign targets he wanted to become friendlier, or at least more pliant. He'd been unconscious for at least a few hours. It would have been a simple enough task to give him a quick injection and with all the cuts, bruises, and lacerations he had from his struggle with the green monstrosity, he probably wouldn't be even able to locate the injection site.

Not that it would do him any good.

The only question was why, and unfortunately he'd seen enough of what had happened to Vincent and Sephiroth to make a few educated guesses. They started with demons and ended someplace around dead aliens. He could even hazard the opinion that dearest, sweetest Lucrecia had taken Vincent shooting at her badly and decided to move on to less well armed people to charm and experiment on.

Damn.

He'd be growing tentacles soon.

If he was lucky.

Veld tried to stretch himself out in his cage without bumping into Barret, who was uninspiringly growling like a feral dog and chewing on one of Veld's shoes. It didn't fill him with joy to see what Lucrecia had managed to turn the man into in only a few short days. While Barret hadn't been the greenest frog in the pond, he hadn't been a literal knee biter either. The man, while shallow, ignorant, and stubbornly stupid, hadn't exactly been a bad person. He'd adopted that girl Marlene. While he hadn't gone about it very well, he had brought much needed attention to Shinra's destruction of the Planet, and he had the good sense to turn Avalanche over to someone else when Sephiroth had decided to rove around tossing large chunks of rock at innocent planets.

He'd actually been a far better leader of Avalanche than his own daughter and that black haired asshole she'd ended up shagging. He'd have asked where he went wrong with the girl, but he guessed having materia fused into her body had probably skewed her taste in men somehow. There was also the fact that her mother had poor taste in men. Proven by the simple fact that she'd married him.

The truck his cage was being carried in jounced in what seemed to be a pothole the size of Cosmo Canyon, causing Barret to look up and snarl. Veld watched him carefully for a few moments, waiting to see if he'd need to teach the man that while he was allowed to chew on the filthy remains of his shoe, touching him meant pain, broken fingers, and curling in fetal position in the corner till his male anatomy stopped feeling as if it was going to explode. The man seemed to remember the last lesson, and after growling, he went back to chewing on the shoe.

Veld wondered if he should have saved the other shoe. He'd probably want one soon.

**Zack**

It hardly looked threatening. The sky was odd, he'd give it that, but otherwise there was nothing: no army, no rampaging hoard of blood thirsty demons, not even a stray chocobo. The land around Edge stretched in softly rolling, uninterrupted monotony under the weird sky.

"Could it be a left over?" Zack peered through the binoculars that Cloud had handed him. "Something from the Bone Village attack that just sorta drifted over this way?"

Cloud grunted and nodded down towards the bustling group of white coated scientists that were cackling merrily around a group of computers and equipment. "They say no."

"Great." Zack looked around, hoping to find some small anomaly, but everything remained stubbornly serene. He lowered the binoculars and handed them back to Cloud. "Anyone want to tell me how she gets the sky to do that?"

Cloud shrugged then had to pause and straighten his sword as it slipped down over his shoulder, "Right now we're guessing that it's some form of magic, like the kind Jenova used to call clouds and atmospheric effects."

Zack nodded, turning to look at the group of scientists more carefully and hiding his grin from Cloud. _Atmospheric effects? I bet Cloud, the First never even used those two words together in a sentence, even with coaching_.

"She might be trying to change the atmosphere to better accommodate the monsters she's summoning. Most of the attacks have been at night, except for Bone Village, which came at dusk. She might be summoning nocturnal creatures that are sensitive to light." Cloud had raised the binoculars to scan the horizon.

Zack's grin grew. _Hojo made a few improvements. I wonder if my clone would have been like this? The new, improved version of me_. "That might give us an advantage in a fight."

Cloud nodded as he adjusted the field glasses to a higher setting. "It's something to think about." He fiddled with the glasses again then lowered them. "I can't see anything. Not even a mosquito."

"Come out here often to watch mosquitoes?" Zack fidgeted looking around the lifeless waste that still surrounded the area. There was clearly nothing, but at the same time there was clearly something. Nothing moved on the barren land, but the sky hung ominously above. "Could it be natural? There've been a lot of funky things happening around the Planet in the last few years, it might have nothing to do with the demons."

Cloud shrugged. "I guess it's possible, but it's odd that it happened just before the attack on Bone Village."

"Yeah." Zack admitted, feeling as if something with lots of small prickly legs was dancing around his backbone. "Odd."

Down below WRO troops were assembled and listening to orders. In the distance, he could hear the soft thump of helicopters lifting out of the airport and heading their way. WRO was throwing everything into the defense of Edge and the refugees who had taken shelter there. Troops had been quickly gathered, air support had been arranged, scientists were clucking, and even the heavy hitters, him, Cloud, and some of Avalanche were anxiously jittering around.

As the troops started out into the wasteland in organized squads, the helicopters arrived to offer air support and recognizance. Cloud put the field glasses back to his eyes and scanned the area again, searching for something to work with. Zack studied the sky and contemplated going down to see what the science team had discovered.

"Let's go." Zack stepped away from their perch on top of one of the tallest buildings on this side of Edge. "We're not helping and standing around looking at dirt isn't going to make her appear."

Cloud grunted and, putting the field glasses away, followed as Zack started towards the stairwell leading down. When they reached the ground floor, more of WRO's troops marched past. Each person was neat and crisp in their uniforms, holding shinny guns, and proudly walking along in their brightly polished boots.

"Don't they just look all spiffy." Zack watched as the troops left.

"They're well trained." Cloud sighed watching the last WRO soldier march smartly out. "When Deepground attacked, they did a good job with them."

Zach nodded cheerily, "What was the casualty rate?"

"Civilian or WRO?" Cloud hedged looking around for the transport that had brought them there

"WRO." Zach stuck his hands in his back pockets and waited.

"About sixty nine percent." Cloud ducked his head and headed in the direction he last saw the transport head in. "Civilian was only about twenty three, though."

"Those figure suck, Spike." Zack followed along, watching the troops dwindle into the distance. "Those are pretty much the figures you get for basic grunts who barely know how to hold a gun."

"Deepground was super-enhanced soldiers. They did great." Cloud dodged around a speeding mo-ped that was carrying a WRO messenger.

Zack kept his mouth shut and turned away. After searching for a few minutes, Cloud reluctantly decided that their transport had left and dragged out his PHS to request another. A small cluster of scientists darted past like a school of fish heading towards the previous group to swirl around the computers. After what seemed like a small forever, a troop transport rumbled up and more spiffy soldiers leapt out to stand in lines to await orders.

The transport driver waved them over, "Need a ride?"

Zack elbowed Cloud and trotted to the truck. "Yep. Ours left without us."

"No problem. I'm the last one to drop off, so I can take you back to HQ." The driver waved for them to take a seat in the cab with him. "All the others are already heading off on the next assignment. It'd be like pulling chocobo teeth to get anyone to come pick you up."

Zack jumped in and scooted to the middle to make room for Cloud. The transport rumbled off down the streets, winding its way back to base. Cloud spent the time talking on the cell phone to Cid, telling him about everything they hadn't observed. Zack looked around, feeling uneasy.

If he could, he would have liked to go back to talk with Sephiroth. There was something definitely wrong about this situation, but he couldn't quite grasp what it was. Everything seemed to be under control. No signs of hostile scientists with megalomaniacal plans, no roving demons, nothing, just a weird aurora and miles and miles of mosquito free land. If he could talk to Sephiroth, he'd be able to figure it out. Seph would listen carefully, even if he pretended he wasn't, occasionally asking questions or making an observation, and by talking, he'd figure it out.

"Can we stop at the holding facility? I want to say good night to Seph. He gets all grumpy if he thinks he's being ignored." Zack pointed in the correct direction.

The driver shrugged, "Sure, not a problem, but you've got to get a ride from there."

"I'm heading back to base." Cloud glanced over. "Cid wants to talk about whether to bring more troops in from Junon. He's sent everyone he's got over to investigate the aurora."

"Okay, sounds great. Can you…" Zack stopped, thinking over what Cloud said. _Sent everyone he's got. Oh shit, that was it._ "Cloud…"

"Can you wait a second." Cloud turned away, talking to Cid.

"Cloud, we've been set up." Zack pulled him to face him. "We've got all the troops in one area chasing after weird lights. She's going to…"

Cloud stopped, his eyebrows drawing together. "Attack." He turned back to Cid. "Get those troops back, Cid. She… It's a trap."

"That's going to be a problem." The driver muttered. "Most of the others were told to go help with food supplies as soon as they dropped off the troops. They're probably half way to Kalm by now, picking up vegetables."

"Go. Go to the holding facility. Go now!" Zack could see the disaster. If she was smart enough to do this, than she was smart enough to know that her window of attack was limited. With their people out of position, they needed help.

"Cid, get those troops back and start looking for her someplace else. She's using the aurora as a decoy. She's got to be close." Cloud bounced as the truck swerved through traffic and headed towards the warehouse district.

As soon as they pulled up to the holding facility, Zack flashed his pass.

"Sorry. The duty sergeant said that you and Mr. Strife were no longer allowed to visit the prisoner." The gate guard scowled.

"What!" Zack was out of the truck in an instant. "You want to repeat that?"

"Your access has been revoked." The man gripped his gun tighter and other guards started coming towards them.

"Cid, call the duty sergeant and get us in to see Sephiroth." Cloud slipped up next to Zack.

"The duty sergeant has gone out on patrol with his squad." The guard smirked at them. "He won't be back till this evening."

The guard went flying as Zack picked him up and threw him into his fellows. Cloud already had his sword in hand.

"Damn. I forgot the masks." Zack dove forward into the melee.

**Cid**

Cid slammed the phone down and grabbed the list of aerial units available. He might be able to airlift some troops out of the western side of the city. Also a few helicopters could start searching.

Fuck. It was so simple. Such a fucking, dumb-ass mistake to make.

He cursed himself as he pulled the list of contact numbers out from under a stack of papers and started calling and chewing ass. The troops were all scattered across the western wasteland. While he managed to reroute the helicopters, it would take hours to reposition all the troops to a more central location. The drivers had joyously informed him that they'd made great time and were already in Kalm, loading vegetables. It would take them at a minimum three hours to dump the produce and get back to pick up the troops. Even then, it had taken them two hours to get the army in place, so it would probably take longer to get them all assembled and moved.

As soon as he had finished trying to fix his stupidity, he called the holding facility. After listening to the phone ring for five minutes, he gave up. Cloud and his friend would deal with those yahoos, and anyone stupid enough to stand in the way of two ex-Solders were better off being selected out of the gene pool anyway.

He was just looking up the next phone number to share his rotten mood with when the phone shrilled at him.

"What." Cid grunted into the phone, finding the number for Midgar's understaffed and underfinanced police department.

"Sir." A voice quavered in his ear. "We found her. There's a group of demons coming from the north east."

Shit. The exact direction that the transports had to go through to get to the troops to get them to the battle.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

"Okay. I'll send assistance. Try to gage the numbers and if you can, the types of monsters we're facing." Cid made his voice sound calm, as if everything was peachy and their troops weren't wandering around in an extended field exercise on nearly the opposite side of the city.

He stormed out of Reeve's office and headed down to the elevator banks. The buzzards, using their super-buzzard danger sense, had already cleared the area, leaving only a few stray secretaries and office boys in their wake. He pulled out his PHS and dialed Cloud.

Cloud didn't answer until he was down in the parking garage and was getting into a car. "Kid, she's made her move. She's coming from the north east."

Cloud seemed out of breath. "Okay, we're on our way."

"I'm heading towards the airport. I'm going to evacuate the hospitals and get those people over to Junon. I'll be sending the Highwind over to continue the evacuation." Cid motioned for his driver to head in the correct direction.

"Okay." Cloud hung up, leaving Cid to make another slew of calls.

**Zack**

By the time they got to the northeast side of Edge, the attack was already well underway. Small demons raced through the streets, bodies were scattered around the edges of roads, buildings were burning, and vehicles were overturned. Cloud was back to talking on his phone, getting in contact with the other members of Avalanche and the Turks. Sephiroth was placidly driving their transport vehicle. Their friend the driver had been left to tend the idiots who thought that a machine gun was a great weapon, so great in fact that they felt that aiming it was completely optional.

Zack's confidence in the WRO troops was still falling fast.

"You could have tried not to cause so much property damage." Sephiroth expertly avoided a tangle of cars that had partially blocked the road. "I really think ripping doors off hinges is overly flamboyant, not to mention time consuming. It is far quicker to just use the door knob."

"I was venting. I'm allowed to do a bit of harmless venting." Zack watched as a group of small, fire demons slid into an alley. More demons were slinking around the burned buildings and around the modern art displays of twisted metal that had, until a hour or so ago, been cars.

Cloud hung up. "Nanaki and Yuffie are helping evacuate the wounded. Cid's readying the Shera for takeoff, Reno and Rude are still in Junon. Tseng is one of the wounded being evacuated, so all we have is Elena and Tifa."

"Tell me Elena can kick ass." Zack watched as a building collapsed in on itself sending a spray of sparks and tiny, fire demons into the sky.

Cloud's eyes darted away. "She's okay."

"I don't think it would matter if she could." Sephiroth turned down a street. "The fact is that even with all of Avalanche, we would still be having difficulty." He shifted to a different gear, wincing at the grinding noises. "We have too few fighters facing an enemy that has superior numbers as well as being scattered through an urban sprawl. This is not an ideal scenario. We might be able to stop some of them, but while we are occupied doing that, their associates can easily go around us and continue the attack on the city."

"Any suggestions?" Zack noticed that the farther they went, the bigger the demons were getting. Some were no the size of large dogs.

"Collapse the buildings. Use them as barriers to block access to the city." Sephiroth turned down another street. "Engaging them in combat would only waste time and effort."

"But the people." Cloud searched through the street, but only spotted dead bodies.

"Can't be helped." Sephiroth shrugged. "Better to try and save those that we can still save. However, using the buildings as barricades won't last very long." He pulled the transport over to the side of the road and opened the door.

"How long?" Zack jumped out after him.

Cloud exited the other door and came to stand with them. "Not long, right."

"Maybe a few hours. I'd have to see what we are facing." Sephiroth glanced around the street. "Start bringing them down." He waved his hand to the buildings lining the street. "Make a mess Zack, and this time feel free to vent."

**Cid**

The Shera was nearly bursting when Cid finally made the motion for it to take off. They'd managed to get all the patients out of the local hospitals and care facilities. They'd even had room for some of the civilians.

Some.

Desperate people were crowded around the airport's chain link fence, yelling, crying, and begging to be allowed onto the plane. People lifted small children up into the air, hoping that even if they couldn't be saved, someone would still be able to save their kids. Young, old, well dressed social light and grimy factory worker, all cried out to him, pleading for him to save them.

The helicopters were gone, keeping an eye on the advancing army and shuffling troops towards the attack. The troop transports were gone, stuck between here and Kalm with loads of vegetables. The city's busses had been conscripted into service, but those were woefully inadequate. Edge, before all the refugees flooded in, had been a large city of over 250,000. With the refugees, it had grown to nearly a half million. Fifty busses to move a half million people from here to Junon would have been laughable, if there hadn't been an army of demons on their tails.

The roads out of the city were clogged with panicky people driving recklessly trying to get out of the city causing snarls of traffic jams, blocking both emergency personnel coming in from the outlying areas and escapees trying to flee. Many were abandoning their cars on the roads and running on foot. It was like watching Meteor again. Only this time, they only had a window of a few hours, not days to get everyone out of the city.

Yuffie came running across the tarmac. "How much longer till the Highwind comes? We've got people waiting."

"Four hours, and that's using the jet drives." Cid stomped into the hanger, away from the people. "It was still on that supply run to the north. They need to stop in Junon to refuel and then they'll be over."

"Why can't they refuel here?" Yuffie looked desperately around. "We've got stuff."

"No, we don't. The Shera's be sucking up fuel. Those copters ain't running on water either, and with the oil factories in Corel shut down, along with their supply routes, we're sucking air." Cid pulled out a cigarette and started going through the routine of lighting it. It usually calmed him down, but not tonight.

"But… The people… What about the people?" Yuffie looked out towards the desperate mob.

"Yeah, and if the Highwind was here, just how many of those people could we save?" Cid blew out a cloud of smoke agitatedly. "Maybe a thousand? And how do we decide who gets to live and who gets left as demon chow?" He waved his arm around sending ash floating around him. "You got any ideas, 'cause I'm fucking out of them and those folk out there are screwed."

Yuffie wilted, "No, I can't think of anything." She shook her head fighting not to cry in front of Cid. "It's so unfair!"

"Get used to it kid." Cid turned and walked deeper into the hanger, heading for the stairs to the upper levels, where he could get to the offices without stepping back outside. He couldn't stand to go back outside and look into those people's eyes that he was leaving to die.

He entered his office, the place he usually worked in, not Reeve's neat clean place. His was a organized disaster with engine parts, ashtrays, and various, semi-mysterious cans of various chemicals cluttering every surface. The only clear space was his chair and the corner of the desk where Shera would come and perch while waiting for him to get around to noticing her. Cid flung himself in the chair and took a long drag on his cigarette.

"Come on, old man. Think of something!" Yuffie's voice was getting higher and higher pitched as she realized that there would be no well organized rescue, no heroes to save the day, no way to dodge the bullet.

"I am. I'm thinking you are going to be heading out on the Highwind with Tifa and Nanaki." Cid leaned back in his chair. "You three have got to set up defenses around Junon."

"Nah-uh." Yuffie shook her head, her black hair flairing with the force she put into it. "I'm not going if you aren't."

**Zack**

The buildings had been easy enough to bring down. It was one of the perks of having so much mako in his system. He could turn huge edifices into rubble in seconds. Cloud and Sephiroth had made easy work of other buildings till there was a thick wall of rubble between the advancing demons and the city behind them.

Sephiroth was standing next to him on top of their newly made barricade with his borrowed sword, one of Cloud's First Tsug…Tes…Ti…Big Sword with Many Detachable Blades, and surveying the army that was approaching. Cloud was still busy, spreading destruction and urban blight and now they had the cute Turk girl standing next to them looking antsy and lost.

Turk training apparently didn't cover demon hoards. Zack felt that after what happened with Deepground, not to mention one of their old Leaders turning into a demon on occasion, the Turks should have at least have been given an office memo on the subject.

"Good. After assessing the enemy, we can fall back to the next street and repeat the process. It will slow them down if they face well spaced rows of blockades." Sephiroth nodded in satisfaction then turned to Elena. "I want you to do a bit of recognizance. Go to the top of one of the standing buildings and get an idea of her army's size and strength. I'm particularly interested in flying creatures and any mechanical weaponry they might have. Meet us in front of the next line of barricades in fifteen minutes."

Elena, still looking unsure, never the less snapped a quick salute and darted off.

"Let's get to work on the next row." The ex-general leapt down of their pile of rubble and walked briskly to the next street. "Now, where is Cloud?" He looked around for the blonde.

Cloud's visit to the realm of mayhem seemed to have come to an end from the sound of it, and Zack peered through the unnatural gloom, looking for him. The aurora now hung directly over Edge, cutting out the sun with its weird unmoving curtain of light and swirls of clouds. It reminded Zack of when he was a child and the forest to the west of Gongaga had burned during a drought. The sky had the same dirty, cloudy, not day, not night look to it.

"There he is." Sephiroth nodded to where he spotted Cloud jogging through the streets. "Let's get to work."

More buildings fell. More piles of shattered homes, stores, and businesses lay in a neat line down the street. The larger demons had already come up to the first line of the blockade. Zack could hear their snarls and growls as they met the unexpected obstacle.

"Alright, fall back to the next street." Sephiroth looked around. "Where is that Turk? She was supposed to meet us ten minutes ago."

Cloud looked around for the woman. "I saw her heading over there." He pointed to a tall building. "I could go check."

"Do it and get back here. I'd like at least one more line of buildings between the populace and those demons." The ex-general nodded to Zack. "We'll get started, find the Turk and meet us in five minutes. If you can't find her, we'll have to leave her."

Cloud raced off and Sephiroth and Zack continued their work. They went down three blocks this time and repeated the cutting down of buildings. It was, Zack admitted, rather fun to rip out the supports of a building then dart out to watch it sag and tumble over. He was just finishing his third building when Cloud raced back.

"Signs of a fight." He took a few deep breaths after his sprint to report to them. "It looks like she was up on the roof and something got her."

Zack sighed, shaking his head. "Nothing to do about it now. Let's finish this."

They both moved off to destroy the city in order to save it.

**Cid**

The Highwind was crammed full. He'd sat and calculated weight, fuel, and just how many passengers he could get on board and still take off, but even with the people on board, the crowd lining the fence hadn't decreased. Instead, more people seemed to have appeared on the hope that they would be able to catch the next flight out.

But there wasn't going to be another flight.

The Shera, after her run to Junon, was out of fuel. The Highwind was also going to be on empty when it got to the city. And there was no fuel left to send them back. He had thought of using helicopters to shift some of the people out of the city, but Dr. Crescent's collection of flying machines had increased dramatically in the past few hours, leaving him with nothing. The roads leading to Junon were now 

hopelessly blocked by wrecked or abandoned cars. The busses that had been transporting people had been mobbed and now, even if there had been a clear road to Junon, they were nonfunctional.

He leaned back in his desk chair and looked at the picture of his wife. "Well, this is it. Got an angry mob outside ready to tear my ass off and a army of demons ready to take what's left." He picked up the photo. "Glad you ain't here, babe. You just stay safe in Junon, ya hear."

He wished he could talk to her, but the last functioning communication to Junon had left with the Highwind. There was still the emergency frequency on the radio worked pretty well inside the city, but that had been quiet for nearly an hour. Even his PHS was reading dead. The towers must have been taken down.

He flipped the frame of the picture over and took the photo out, tucking it in his pocket. He was alone now. He'd managed to get Nanaki and Yuffie onto the Highwind. Tifa was missing. He guessed that he could go look for her. It would give him something to do besides listen to the doomed cries of the mob and wait till the demons showed up. He picked up his Venus Gospel and stepped out of his office going down to the main hanger. He found the main switches for the airport and shut down the lights. Maybe that would give the crowd a clue that there was no help coming from this quarter. He went out a side door heading across the landing field. The people were all yelling and screaming, but with no light they couldn't see him as he ran across the tarmacs and fields towards the far end of the complex. No one had bothered to get over to that area, since it was enclosed by warehouses, emergency vehicle garages, and former military bunkers. The only way in or out was to have the pass key.

He reached the buildings and quickly unlocked the door to the emergency vehicle garage. The huge engines were silent and looming as he made his way through the area towards the back of the building. When he got to the outside doors, he paused to listen, and hearing nothing, unlocked the door and cautiously walked out into the street.

The street lights were off. The power grids had been diverted for emergency use only, so only main streets still had light. He turned left and headed towards Tifa's bar. He guessed she'd be there or in Aeris's old church. He desperately hoped she'd be in the bar. It was closer and he really could use a drink.

Some of the mob had apparently gotten the message and groups of people were making their way through the streets. No one seemed too interested in anything but getting out of Edge as quickly as possible, so Cid had no problems avoiding unwelcome recognition. He wanted to find Tifa fast, not stand around explaining that life just sucked and the reality of limited fuel and air travel.

He had to kill a few small demons as he moved through the streets. They looked like warped house cats with flaming eyes and tails. While they weren't hard to spear, there were a lot of them, so Cid only killed the ones that threatened him and kept moving. He wanted to get to the bar quickly then leave this place before the fire demon's big brothers and sisters came looking for their kin.

Seventh Heaven was dark when he got to the street. Doors on the neighboring buildings had been smashed in and many windows had been broken. Small fires, probably set by the fire demons burned sullenly in many places consuming wood, trash, and the insides of cars.

Cid paused by the door to the bar. It was pushed in, but still intact. "Tif? You in here?"

He only got silence in return. He stepped quietly through the door and quickly looked around. A small fire was just getting started in one corner, casting light around the bar room. There was, except for the fire, no sign that anything had happened here.

"Tif. It's Cid. Are you in here?" He glanced into the kitchen area and found it deserted and untouched.

He then went upstairs, quickly checking the rooms. Nothing moved and the only things out of place were the kid's clothes. It looked like they'd been rummaged through. Tifa's room was relatively untouched, only her weapons were missing.

"Tif? Marlene? Denzel? It's Cid." He didn't believe anyone could hear him, but he didn't want to get a fist in the face either.

He trotted down stairs and out of the building. The fire had spread and was making its way over to the bar where it would get a lot of help from the liquor supply. He jogged down the street, passing and killing a few more cat demons, and headed towards the church. If they weren't there, he was out of ideas. He vaguely knew that Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth were all building barricades on the north eastern edge of the city, but where they were exactly would be nearly impossible, not to mention suicidally dangerous to find out. The only thing left would be to head out across the wastelands with the other poor asses and hope to get to Junon without becoming demon bait. He might even be able to act as a guard for a group as they traveled.

It was some comfort to see that most of Edge was now deserted. Only the remains of things were left behind. Buildings were abandoned, vehicles sat in one state or another on the side of the road, various bits of luggage, personal items, and boxes were scattered on the sidewalks, left where their owner's dropped them in their rush to flee. Cid ignored the bodies. He didn't want to see them, so when he noticed something that indicated that some poor slob hadn't been quite quick enough on his feet to escape, he looked away, searching for demons to work out his grief and anger on.

When he got to the church, he'd rid the world of about thirty such pests. He expected more, but he guessed the demons were looking for live prey, not the dead. The door to the church was barred, which made him feel relieved, it meant there was a good possibility that Tifa and the kids were inside, and maybe, please Planet, maybe still safe.

Cid banged a fist against the church doors, "Tif! You in there? It's Cid. Open up!"

He waited a few moments listening and feeling his heart sink as the silence stretched. "Tif?" He pounded on the door again. "Answer me if you're in there Tif!"

"Uncle Cid?" Marlene's voice was barely above a whisper. "That you?"

"Hey, darling, it's me. You okay?" Cid heard the slow push of the inner locks grating open.

A minute later the door was open and Marlene stood looking small and battered in front of him. "I'm okay, but Aunt Tifa's hurt." She waved inside where the pool of Holy glimmered in the faint light the aurora let through. "She said to come here and close the door."

"Good idea." Cid stepped inside and swung the door closed and locked it again. "Better to keep that shut."

Tifa was sitting against the pile of rubble that she and Loz had made in their little romp around the church together. Her left leg was wrapped in bandages and her scowl told him that she was less than pleased with it.

"You doin' okay there, Tifa?" Cid squatted down to look at her sour expression, guessing that if she was feeling well enough to be royally ticked, she was doing fine.

"Just great, Cid." Tifa's voice was firm and unwavering. "Can't you tell?"

Cid grinned, "Just checking. We should get our asses out of here." He nodded towards the door. "Spike and his buddies are working on holding the demons out, trying to buy people time. We should make use of it."

Tifa nodded. "I was getting the kids out when some jerk nearly killed me with his car." She glared down at her leg. "Demons, didn't have a problem with them. My neighbors, deadly."

Cid stood and offered her a hand up, which she grumpily accepted. "Okay, let's move."

**Zack**

As Seph had predicted the barricades didn't last more than a few hours. They prolonged things by making life difficult for the advancing army by toppling more buildings down on top of them and picking off some of the more powerful ones, but the inevitable was slowly taking place. There was just too few of them to cover the ground. While they held one street, or even a couple of blocks, the rest of the army flowed past with hardly a hiccup.

The WRO troops had finally shown up, some being quick marched around the city while the luckier ones got helicopters to drop them off. Zack didn't like thinking of the reception the troops had received. His doubts had been more than proved and next time he asked Cloud about the percentages, Cloud could now say that WRO had a hundred percent rate…of fatalities. The guns, swords, and other weapons the poor schmucks had used had been pathetically ineffective and standing on the third barricade, busy hacking down large slug like demons, all he, Cloud, and Sephiroth had been able to do was watch the slaughter.

The three of them were now dragging themselves out of the battle area. The barricades were breached in too many areas, demons were racing through the city at will, and Sephiroth called it a day. There was nothing to be gained by standing and fighting small skirmishes. They could instead fall back and work on keeping escape routes open and protected while people fled.

"I think we need to take that street." Cloud tiredly pointed to the right. "It should take us over to the main road headed west."

Sephiroth nodded, his long silver hair was now grimy, matted, and hanging like a wet woolen blanket down his back. "Keep a look out for any type of transportation."

Cloud nodded, "We could go straight and head for the garage I leave Fenrir in. The owner has a few other bikes we might be able to use."

Seph nodded and Zack felt a bit better. Trudging miserably through a ruined city was, well, miserable. It would be better if he could zoom around on a motorcycle. He'd watched Cloud do it often enough and the new bikes looked like fun. He remembered when he last walked the planet, bikes had been big, chrome monsters that looked like a muffler had mutated and wanted to strangle the rider to death.

The garage was still in one piece when they arrived. A few wrecked cars littered around, rubbing hubcaps with old beer cans and fluttering newspapers. As he and Seph stood gazing at the unparalleled beauty of urban blight, Cloud used his sword to sheer through the garage door and step in.

"How come he can bust through a door and I get told not to be flamboyant?" Zack hissed to Sephiroth as they went through the gaping hole.

Sephiroth paused, pulling the remains of the door out of the way of their exit. "He does it better than you."

"What!" Zack looked affronted.

He was ignored as his two companions slipped through the gloom and located the bikes. Cloud, muttering about wires and just taking a moment, knelt down and started fiddling with the bikes' ignitions. Sephiroth glanced around at the cars that were still stored near them. When he noted a few tanks of gas sitting to one side, he walked over and picked them up.

"We need to take these." He looked around for something to attach the tanks to the bikes.

Cloud waved a hand towards the back. "Some stuff over there."

Zack went over while Sephiroth set the tanks next to the bikes. A metal storage cabinet yielded some straps to tie things with and a small box of tools.

"Should we take these?" He held up the tool box.

"Bring them." Sephiroth was looking around for more supplies. "We don't need to be broken down in the middle of nowhere."

Cloud got the bikes running in a few minutes and they strapped the fuel and tools on. After carefully maneuvering out of the ruined garage door, they sped off down the street heading for the main roads going west.

"What do you think is happening?" Cloud zoomed next to Zack. "Do you think they got out?"

Not knowing how to answer, and not sure he wanted to tell the truth, Zack shrugged. "Maybe, some of the might have."

He didn't think Cloud wanted to hear that even the few hours they had bought weren't enough. Even with a squadron of Soldiers, first class ones at that, the city would have been a wipe. He'd seen the advancing army. Lucrecia had been busy. It had stretched out over miles, making the attack at Cosmo Canyon look like a tiny argument. There had been hundreds of thousands of demons. There was no way to stop them. Maybe, back in the glory days of Shinra, they might have been able to get together a countering army in a few months, but now?

He just hoped Lucrecia wasn't going to just plow right through Edge and roll over Junon like a wave. With that army behind her, she could do it.

* * *

**AN:**

1) I've had a few requests, so I will cover all those here. I don't mind if you archive the story, link the story, or do artwork for the story as long as you tell me that you are doing it, and let me know where it is. I like to know what's going on with my stories. If you want to write spin-offs and want to mention my story in your story, you need to ask, give me details of what you want to do, and IF I approve of your idea, I want final approval and editing rights. Otherwise, please do not refer to this story in your piece. I might even share character notes and side plots that never got put in to my final drafts or explained in detail if you want. I'm doing this because I already have some one-shots planned for this story, so I don't want you to grab what I'm doing. I also want to make sure your stories fit in with the overall story I'm telling if you are going to do spin-offs. I am reserving Vincent and Veld's early Turk years for awhile. I have a few ideas for that story, but I want to return to _Terms of Engagement's_ universe for awhile, and who knows what will happen after that. Originally, I was planning on writing a Vincent/Reeve bizarre twist on the "Vincent's a vampire" theme story called _Addictive_ (I keep playing with that one) that morphed into a Vincent/Tseng/Lucrecia story that somehow mutated into _Once a Man_.

2) I am a horrible correspondent. I never answer my e-mail, can't be depended on to answer sanely if I've been up all night, and I get grumpy after a long writing stretch. If you want to talk to me, come chat over games at gaiaonline. com. My name there is Etoile de la Mer (I'm a Rufus chibi!! Too cute!) and the password into my games is seastar. Feel free to bother me, except when I'm playing pinball. I get nasty when I lose my concentration.

3) If you notice, I have a pattern for these chapters. The odd numbered chapters are in first person centering around Hojo and Vincent. They take turns telling their side of the story. The even numbered chapters are in third person showing what is going on around our duo that's affecting them. Here's the break down so far:

Chapter One: Vincent then Hojo.

Chapter Two: Third person Zack, Tseng, then Cloud.

Chapter Three: Vincent.

Chapter Four: Third person focusing on the fall of Cosmo Canyon.

Chapter Five: Hojo then Vincent.

Chapter Six: Third person Tseng, Reeve, Veld.

Chapter Seven: Hojo.

Chapter Eight: Third person, Tseng, Cid, Veld, Tseng.

Chapter Nine: Vincent. (He was supposed to share, but Hojo was feeling a bit under the weather.)

Chapter Ten: Third person focusing on the fall of Edge.

Chapter Eleven is slated to be Hojo then Vincnet, but might shift to total Hojo to maintain cosmic balance.


	11. Avoidance

**A huge thanks to Strange and Intoxicating –rsa- for being my beta!**

Now a Monster

Chapter 11: Avoidance

* * *

Usually, when I wake up from one of my extended holidays into the land of melting clocks and talking furniture, I find myself curled under a cardboard box in some back alley. I then get to drag my achy, often battered self home to shower off, eat something besides the banquet offered by back alley dumpsters, and trundle merrily back to my delightful and fulfilling job. There, the glorious people I worked with would look at me with self-righteous amusement or total loathing until I went to talk to my piggy puppet for the sheer relief of not being able to see everyone snickeringthat it served me right. If I was lucky, I could avoid going to the labs for the rest of the day by going out slumming with my pet swine and return to catch up on everything I missed out on after everyone else went home. I could then hide in my lab till by brain fizzed out again and the whole process would cycle back around.

Waking up in Vincent's arms was beyond words. We were sitting in a small bedroom in one of the shell buildings in the City of the Ancients with the light from outside casting mid-afternoon patterns of shadows and light through the room. Vincent had me in his lap, my head against his shoulder, and a soft, worn blanket wrapped around my legs. He was reading a file of some sort, lifting the papers with one hand to read as his other arm stayed wrapped around my waist, holding me close. The scent of cooking was delicately swirling around me, and through the door of the room, I could hear the soft murmur of someone singing softly.

This was so wildly different from my usual wake up routine, that I could only blink up at Vincent's semi-preoccupied face as he continued reading. He was beautiful. He's always been physically stunning with his perfect features, and even the changes that he'd undergone because of her only added to the overall effect. Now in the soft light of afternoon, dressed in an old thermal shirt that gaped softly around his neck showcasing his shoulders and collarbone, with his hair falling down one shoulder, he was the most perfect thing I had ever seen. I stayed still and quiet just so I could watch the flick of his eyelashes as he blinked, the way his lips softly pressed together or twitched in response to whatever he was reading. I had spent evenings like this, watching him, as I drifted off to sleep, curled at his side as he read some file he had brought home from work.

When he finished reading the sheet of paper, he set it down, shifting a small bit and dislodging the blanket from where it had been draped loosely around my waist. He tucked it back and brushed a soft kiss against my forehead, seemingly quite used to my eyes being open and looking at him.

"Are you hungry?" He caressed my cheek with a delicate sweep of his fingers. "You didn't eat much for lunch."

He managed to get lunch in me? That was new. Usually, I generally tried not to think of my nutritional habits during my stray off the path of sanity. To have someone take care of me while I was gone… that, that someone was Vincent… I had to still be off roving around some alternate version of reality. It was a wonderful version though, and I suddenly, desperately, didn't want it to end. It would. My fun little vacations never lasted. In what would seem like only a few seconds, Vincent would be back to hating me, I would be back sleeping in an old, forgotten cave, and everything I had ever dared to love would be gone.

"Hojo?" Vincent's voice was soft, questioning. "Hojo?"

I clung. I couldn't help it. Usually, that triggered the end of my fantasy of being with Vincent again, and I'd wake up with a death grip on a pillow or a curtain. One horrid time, I woke up attached to Heidegger's pant leg. My only consolation over that whole nightmarish situation was that from that day forward Heidegger tried to never look at me or, if he could at all help it, come near me. Since I had been working on that result for years, I was, in the end, somewhat content. Maybe I should have done it earlier.

Vincent's arms came around me. "I'm here. You're safe."

Vincent… Vincent was here. He wasn't disappearing, melting away into my memory. He stayed solid and real as I buried my face against his neck and wrapped my arms around him. He held me close as I trembled and tried to make my mind stop running in small circles of elation that he was here and worry that he'd suddenly disappear.

"It's all right." He soothed my hair down, kissing my temple, and holding me. "Everything is fine. I'm sorry I worried you, love. I won't do it again."

I nodded, probably not the most comfortable sensation for him since I was nearly trying to burrow under his skin. "You're here."

"Yes." He used his leverage to rock me a little shifting me to a position where he could breathe more easily if I continued my nodding. "I'm here. I won't leave you. Never again."

If I could have, I would have cried.

We stayed where we were for awhile. I sniffled a bit; he hummed softly and rocked me. The light shifted around the room and the smell of chocobo casserole drifted lazily around till my stomach felt the need to remind me that I had apparently not eaten much for lunch. I could feel Vincent's soft chuckle against my cheek.

"You are hungry." His arms pulled me into a tighter hug, then loosened. "Bettina will be happy. She's only had me to comment on her cooking."

"Bettina?" I frowned, looking around the obviously shell-like house. What was Bettina doing in the Ancient's city? Oh, yes. The attack.

"Hmm." Vincent gently dislodged me from my strangle hold on him and shifted over to stand up. He gently pulled me to my feet then gave me a small tug towards the door. "Davies has been too busy settling everyone in to spend time with her. She's lonely."

Not wanting to be too far away from him, I scrambled to my feet and followed after him like a baby duckling as he went out and, after waiting to make sure I was with him, down stairs. The lower level had been set up as a small sitting room with a tiny kitchen that lurked under the stairwell. Under what seemed to be a newly-made window a tiny table that would have been crowded sitting one person was surrounded by three mismatched chairs.

As soon as he stopped at the foot of the stairs, I latched onto his arm. He hates having his arm held like that, feeling that it limited his mobility in case something happened. Personally, I think he carried this dislike to extremes. We could be alone, in our apartment, in the middle of the night, and he'd still get persnickety about me holding his arm. I didn't care right now; it was either latch onto his arm or deck him to the floor and lay on top of him in an orgy of togetherness. I figured a little arm restraint was the preferable activity.

"Dinner will be up in a moment." Bettina was bent peering into the oven. "It just has to cool down." She pulled a casserole dish out and set it on top of the stove.

"Thank you, Bettina." Vincent went to sit at the tiny table.

She turned and nodded then when she realized that I was back to being myself, she grinned. "Well, look who woke up."

That's a nice way to say it.

I offered a small, embarrassed smile. "Sorry to worry you."

She brushed it aside, turning to pull some chipped plates out of a makeshift cupboard. "Vincent is the one that took care of you." She only had to turn and take one step to place the dishes on the table. "We've only got water right now." She reached up and took down some mugs. "I used the last of the dried milk for the dumplings."

Milk or not, it was still a wonderful meal. I marveled at her ability to gather all this together in the middle of the City of the Ancients. Last thing I clearly remembered was everyone fleeing from a demon attack and yet here we were eating a delicious lunch, off real plates, on a real, though microscopic, table, next to a kitchen that, if not the most modern, was well equipped.

I wonder if Vincent and Davies would kill me if I admit I occasionally wish I had married Bettina?

My two dinner companions kept each other amused. Bettina rambled on about supplies, my old buddies, the diggers, and their excavations in the city, and the marvels of the Ancient's outhouse facilities. Vincent nodded, munched, and occasionally raised an eyebrow over some comment Bettina made. I stayed silent, content to be sitting so close to Vincent that our elbows kept brushing and our feet were tangled together under the table.

When we were finished, Bettina shooed us both out, claiming we were underfoot, which, considering the size of our house, we probably were. Vincent and I thanked her as we escaped from dirty dishes, encrusted pans, and an arsenal of dirty kitchen utensils. The afternoon was sliding gently into dusk, people were strolling through the city quietly heading towards home and evening meals, and children raced around trying to take advantage of the last hour of light to terrorize their neighbors.

Vincent was, if he admitted it or not, hovering. It wasn't his I'm-a-Turk hovering, it was the more annoying I-think-you-can't-be-trusted-not-to-hurt-yourself hovering. It involves him staying as close to me as possible, not an thing I normally protest, especially right now; however, it involves him watching me for every minute sign that I might fling myself off a nearby cliff in an uncontrollable fit of self destruction; glaring at any foolish biological organism, rock formation, or botanical specimen that might threaten my apparently shaky hold on life; and all the while pretending that he was not jittering in an excess of overprotective nerves at my side.

I mulled this over as we paused to watch a group of children race by with an old wheel, a stick, and a ball off to do some esoteric kid ritual with them. Vincent had been in deep broody, avoiding, worried mode back in Bone Village before he wandered off to talk to Tseng and shoot things. With the added stress of an attack on the village and my bout of insanity, I was surprised he allowed me out of that bedroom, much less down stairs and…wonder of all wonders… out of the house. In fact, a bout of overprotective hovering was downright calm.

I narrowed my eyes and studied him. "Vincent?"

He turned from suspiciously eying a rather innocent looking geranium. Behind him, the owner of the geranium, a rather thin looking man with a perky mustache, nodded a careful hello and went back to cultivating his garden with a small trowel. His work was paying off since his plants were lush and running rampantly over the reconstructed walls of his garden. A quick look around showed me water flowing in cheerful brooks aroundwell-kept houseswith vibrant plants sprawling colorfully in pools around them. People were ambling peaceably through the streets, children were playing, small pets were lounging in doorways, and a settled contentment seemed to cover the city.

"Vincent, how long was I sick?" I watched a rather plump young woman hang laundry out on a clothesline that was already starting to sag.

"Awhile." He frowned at the thin home owner.

"Just how long is awhile?" I noticed that the streets were swept and any missing paving stones had been replaced.

"We should go back." He took my arm and started steering me back. "I don't want you getting tired."

Avoidance.

As I've pointed out, I knew how to deal with that, and the best way was to go back to the shell house and that bed. The sooner I got my moody, avoiding, denial ridden Turk settled down and cuddling, the sooner I'd get some answers. Until then, he'd probably sabotage all efforts on my part to learn what I wanted to know by glaring, snarling, and, if pressed, hauling me off to remote "safe" locations.

"Vincent! Vincent!" A young, pleasant looking woman with soft brown hair came trotting down the street. "Vincent, I was just coming to see you."

Vincent stepped in front of me protectively and growled, "Later."

She stopped, smiling uncertainly. "But I just wanted…" She waved a sheaf of papers. "Cid said…"

Ah. That's where I'd seen her. This was Mrs. Highwind, the woman who should probably win the next spot as a saint. While I admire Mr. Highwind's intelligence and determination, his personal habits were rather unique. How she managed to avoid contracting lung cancer from the daily inhalation of massive amounts of second-hand smoke puzzled me. Perhaps she's been exposed to mako, a childhood accident, maybe. Either that or she was one of those rare, lucky people who'd live to a hundred and twenty no matter what environmental detriments were thrown her way.

"It's the latest intelligence from the Turks." She glanced over at me, offering a polite, if somewhat confused smile as Vincent remained standing guard between us.

I smiled helplessly back and gave her a small shrug.

Vincent took the file. "Fine."

"He also wanted me to ask…" She hesitated as Vincent gave his head a shake.

"Later, Shera. Thank you, for this." He didn't sound thankful. He sounded like he was restraining himself from shoving her into a shallow grave.

Best to get him home before he murdered his friend's spouse. I nodded politely to Mrs. Highwind and touched Vincent's arm. "I'm feeling a bit tired. Why don't you stay and talk. I'll go back."

Of course tonberries would become centerfolds for _Metropolitan Gentlemen,_before Vincent in overprotective, hovering, avoidance mode allowed me, delicate thing that I was right then, to walk down a dangerous street with menaces like small children, harried mothers, old gardeners, and who knew what other degenerate people lurking about waiting to do unmitigated evil to my fragile self. Still, I kept an innocent look plastered to my face and started to step away.

Vincent was at my side in milliseconds. "Good night, Shera."

"Really, stay and talk. It's lovely out and the house is only right there." I pointed to the nautilus house a half block away where Bettina was shaking out a towel.

He hustled me along, not even sparing a half a peek at the bemused Mrs. Highwind, who stood smiling fondly at Vincent's back. I'd have to apologize for my manipulative behavior later. Hopefully, she'd understand the need to get Vincent calmed down quickly. He might not go out razing down the city's populace, but he'd definitely give them a scare, though the lack of his beloved cape would give him a bit of a handicap. I supposed he could always wrap himself in a moldy blanket to flutter around in. It would almost be the same.

If you can't tell, I hate that cape. All I can think is somehow that concoction of mine must have adversely affected his fashion sense. It's an odd side effect. He definitely never roved around in a bright red, tattered, overly dramatic cape thirty years ago.

Seeing that it was once his father's, maybe it's genetic…

I barely got to say hi to Bettina before I was whisked upstairs and settled gently on the bed. Vincent bustled about nanny-like getting me a mug of water, plumping my pillow, and helping me off with my shoes. I waited him out, and, when he started skittering about searching for new ways to ensure my well being, I patted the bed next to me.

"Stay with me?"

He gave me an odd look then glanced over to the door to our tiny bedroom. When he closed it, I started wondering if he was going to barricade us in for my own protection. Maybe Bettina would have to spend the next few days slipping food under the door. How she'd slide a casserole under the door was a bit worrisome, but I'm sure she wouldn't leave me to starve.

I was just pondering the logistics of bacon, eggs, and toast when I was abruptly hauled back to the present as Vincent came to stand in front of me. He loomed there for a moment then leaned down lifting his hand to tangle in my hair and pulling my head back.

As his mouth descended to harshly claim mine, I realized something by the tiny smirk I caught lurking on his face. I have said it before, and I say it again. I never learn. One does not plot against Vincent. All my little maneuverings, my little ploy to get Vincent away from Mrs. Highwind had not only been recognized, but had been planned for in advance and taken advantage of.

Sneaky Turk.

Not that I was going to lodge a complaint. Vincent's hands stroking my clothes off my body, his weight as it settled over me, the delightful feel of his skin under my fingers more than made up for his conniving ways. It was almost like the first time we had been together. While I had dreamed of him for years, I found myself relearning small things like how his ribs curved under my palms, how he liked to shift his hips just so on a down stroke, or how he'd stretch slightly and make a soft, low hum if I ran my fingernails lightly down his lower back. He had changed a bit too. He was thinner than he'd been before with more defined hip bones and a more slender waist. While his strength was vastly increased, which I experienced as he casually shifted me to straddle him, holding and moving me as if I weighed no more than a child's doll, his wrists, arms, and legs were more slender. He was also more sensitive, wanting softer touches along his shaft and testicles, and murmuring a soft caution as I nipped at his neck.

He also was relearning me. His hands slipped around my body measuring, feeling, bending, and testing my reactions to him. His mouth stroked along my skin, reacquainting himself with my taste and the sounds he could pull from me. I'm sure he found differences. Once, I had thoroughly enjoyed having him nipping and sucking on my nipples harshly, but now I couldn't suppress the urge to jerk away slightly when his fingers pinched down a bit too hard; however, I now adored it when he ran his tongue across the instep of my foot, which I had only minimally enjoyed before.

By the time we came to rest, with me sprawled across him like a damp blanket, the room was dark and I had decided that I could easily spend a decade or two gleefully relearning Vincent. He lay beneath me, stroking his hand through my semi-damp hair.

"Now…where were we?" He hummed a second while my brain tried to cobble together some kind of answer.

This wasn't new. While Vincent seemed to bounce perkily back after sex, my mind and body always wanted to stay in that pleasant haze. When we lived together, I suspected he'd deliberately wait until after we'd made love to bring up topics that he knew I'd otherwise object to such as: staying with my mother during vacation (While I adored my mother, I didn't like staying at her house. I admit, I am vocal during sex and having my mother gently ask for us to keep it down always made me feel…odd…); breaking the news to me that he'd be off on assignment for months; stray confessions about dead plants or broken coffee mugs (He still owes me for breaking my rare, vintage, first edition, CosmoCoffee mug. He will pay. Someday, my poor coffee mug shall be avenged.); or making off hand comments about his using the last of my favorite shampoo (A common occurrence which left me to wash my hair the next morning with the nasty, medicinal smelling shampoo he stubbornly insisted on buying, which resulted in me spending the following day feeling as if I'd been dowsed in disinfectant.)

He settled himself more comfortably in the mattress and looked innocently away.

Suspect innocent when it comes to Vincent.

"Oh yes, we were discussing just how long you'd been gone." He ran a hand down my back causing me to shiver inresidualreaction. "About two and a half months."

I did manage to get my mouth to blurringly mutter, " 'oo 'n a 'af?"

He pulled the blanket slowly up my back, no doubt grinning to himself as it caused small tremors of pleasure to dance across my skin. "Two and a half."

I was left to consider that. He seemed content to let me drift and I was in no rush to leave my position. I listened to his heart beating under my ear and the soft sounds of his breathing. The air was a bit cold, but with the blanket covering me and Vincent keeping me warm, I enjoyed the contrasts.

"There's something else." He shifted so that both his arms came around me, wrapped around my waist. "Sephiroth is alive."

Sephiroth… our son…

"He's dead." I raised my head to look. It had to be a mistake in hearing. Sephiroth died in that crater, cut to pieces with a sword then again on top of the old Shinra tower. "You were there. You saw."

"He's back." Vincent kept me in place as I tried to get away.

I wanted to retreat away from what he was saying, away from the memories. "Jenova…" It had to be her, pulling Sephiroth's poor soul out of the lifestream for another round of torture. I only hoped that this time he wouldn't die so slowly.

Death by sword is not pleasant.

"No. It seems Lucrecia pulled him out of the lifestream." Vincent had to hold me a bit tighter as I jerked in reaction to her name. "Before she could do anything, a friend of his, Zack, pulled him clear."

My mind tried to wrap itself around that. Lucrecia took him out of the lifestream. She couldn't even leave him alone after he had died. In a way, I could accept Jenova doing it. Jenova wasn't human and I sometimes thought she wasn't so much evil as alien and very, very confused.

Then again, I am hardly the best judge of another's sanity level.

"Hojo."

Sephiroth was alive. Was he sane? Was he the same man, the same son, that I remembered? He had been such a sweet child, full of curiosity, at least when Jenova wasn't causing him to rampage around like a Nibel wolf in a blood frenzy. Every time he'd toddle by me, smiling and innocent, a toy clutched firmly in one hand, I'd stop and marvel that he even existed. When he had grown into a gangling teen, I could so clearly see a teenage Vincent staring back at me, reflected in our son's struggle to tame his long legs and arms.

"Hojo."

What had Lucrecia done? Why had she done it? Couldn't she leave him alone? Wasn't it enough that her insanity had destroyed his life and driven him insane? Did she have to destroy his death, too? What more could she want? When was enough enough?

"Hojo!"

I was suddenly snapped back to myself. I was now on my back, and Vincent was next to me, leaning over, looking anxiously down into my face. I didn't remember changing positions.

"What?" I frowned slightly at him, not really upset but confused.

He sighed. "You frightened me." He leaned down and kissed me softly. "I thought you'd fade out again."

I hugged him, pulling him down to me. "When I have you right here? Why would I do that?"

He didn't answer. He didn't point out that I'd only just woken up from fading out on him. He slid his arms under me and buried his face against my neck as I held him, feeling the tense muscles in his shoulders and neck slowly relax. When he raised his head to press our mouths together, we began again, learning, relearning, and maybe trying to forget.

The next morning was delightfully bright and warm. Bettina had left us a breakfast of eggs, ham, and biscuits smothered in thick, creamy gravy which was greedily gobbled down by Vincent. I wasn't feeling hungry. After years of living off my own cooking, food from Shinra's cafeteria, or gleanings from local trash receptacles, I had learned to live with little nourishment. My stint sleeping in a cave hadn't improved my appetite. Vincent however seemed determined to make up for lost time, and considering the thinness of his body, I was happy to donate my breakfast to the cause of fattening him up.

As he shoved food in his mouth, I sat and read the file that he had been reading when I had woken up the day before. It was an account of Lucrecia's exploits since she decided to grace the Planet with her delightful presence. If I hadn't already lost my appetite, reading what she had done to Vincent in Costa del Sol and Gongaga would have made me vomit. I kept having to look up to check to make sure he was there, alive, well, and feeding himself with a gusto that was only previously reserved for elfadunks that had been on a starvation diet.

When there was a pause in the feeding frenzy, I tapped the report about the attack on Edge. "She couldn't do this."

He was nice enough to swallow and wipe his mouth before saying, "Regardless, she did."

"No. I'm serious. She couldn't do this. It's impossible." I flipped to a report in heartbreakingly familiar handwriting. "Sephiroth clearly states that there were thousands of demons in her army. The energy drain for summoning this many creatures would be fatal. Ether, even the advanced forms, if taken in too great a quantity, becomes toxic. She'd need a small army of people to help her summon all these."

"Nevertheless." Vincent nodded to the report. "They were there."

I frowned down at the paper. The report clearly stated the demons were there. The report from the attack on Cosmo Canyon also had similar sightings in it. I puzzled it over. "Are you sure she isn't transporting them?"

He took a sip of coffee and shook his head. "No one has seen her do it. With an army that large, she'd be spotted."

True.

I went back to frowning at the paper. "But it's impossible."

I continued my reading and he continued his chomping. There was no way she could do what she had done, but she'd done it. Could she have been altered by being encased by the mako crystal? I thought it over for awhile as I reread the attack on Nibelheim. I'd done a lot of research with mako and even Sephiroth who had the more mako in his system than anyone else (Except possibly Vincent. I'd have to run a few tests to see who won that contest.) only exceeded the normal magical capacity by 147. While startling, it still fell far short of being able to summon thousands of demons.

Demons, as a general rule, take a great deal of energy to summon. Many people never develop the ability to even summon a single demon from a summon materia. To summon a half dozen demons would be beyond the capabilities of a vast majority of those people who did have the ability without the use of ethers. Less than twenty five people on the Planet could manage to exceed that half dozen. With the use of ethers, they could probably summon maybe a couple hundred before the ether content in their bodies reached toxic levels. To summon thousands of demons, Lucrecia would need hundreds of people with high magical abilities. There were no such people. And of those who did have the ability were working against her.

"It doesn't make sense," I grumbled.

Vincent, done with consuming every edible thing on the table, only nodded to me as he put his plates in the sink.

"She can't do that." I sulked at the papers.

"She can't do what?" A friendly, if somewhat hoarse voice asked from the doorway.

I turned to find that my morning had been invaded by a cloud of toxic waste.

"No smoking." Vincent came over to stand next to me and glare at the offending party, Cid Highwind.

"Quit yer mothering." Cid dropped his cigarette and stomped it out. "Just came over to see how things were. Shera said he was up and about."

Vincent waved a disapproving hand at the remaining smoke. "Things are fine. Go home."

My what a happy mood he was in. Highwind seemed immune though and sauntered over. Perhaps he'd gotten used to Vincent during their travels together. He nodded politely to me and settled himself against the counter.

"Cid…" Vincent's voice held a warning.

"What can't she do?" Highwind asked me, ignoring Vincent, who quietly fumed, but seeing that his friend wasn't actually doing anything, couldn't really complain.

"She can't summon all those demons." I rustled the papers. "It's impossible."

Highwind nodded. "If I didn't see them with my own eyes, I'd agree with you."

Vincent, deciding that he couldn't glare his friend way, settled himself back in his chair and moodily started to drink his coffee. "Could she have found a new type of ether to supercharge her abilities?"

I thought about it. I had, depending on my mental state, looked into materia and ether usage while trying to untangle Sephiroth from his mother's delicate web of crazy plans. The idea I'd been chasing had been to bolster Sephiroth's abilities to enable him to withstand Jenova, or failing that, lock the portion of Jenova that Lucrecia had implanted in him away into a materia crystal. Both failed miserably early on in my studies. Ether didn't enhance his immunity to Jenova, and anything with mako or the lifestream repelled Jenova. It did lead me to focus more on my mako studies, which proved more useful in the long run. Still, the main problem with ether was the very thing that made it useful―the restoration of magical ability. Energy doesn't come from a vacuum. Ether recharges a body's magical capabilities, but it does so by pouring into the body a foreign energy source. Bodies generally don't like the introduction of foreign substances, and if exposed to a foreign substance for long enough, it will try to reject it. Mako, being one of the basic building blocks of creation, needs to be highly refined to make it compatible with a body. Even then, the body doesn't appreciate getting too much of it all at once. Ether, even the most refined, is more akin to plasma energy, a completely foreign substance. To modify an ether to be more compatible, she…

"Hojo."

"I'm fine." I looked over to Vincent. "I seriously doubt that she'd be able to come up with a new form of ether. She has been locked away for decades in that crystal and back then, we didn't even have turboethers."

"Yeah. Unless she squirreled a lab away in the back of that cave." Highwind was patting down his pockets as if looking for something but stopped when Vincent made a small snarl.

"So, we are back to it being impossible." I nudged Vincent's foot under the table. As long as Highwind wanted to be civil, as in not telling me I was an insane nut cake that should be exterminated, I was willing to let this conversation continue.

Vincent looked at Highwind a second then nudged me back. "Unless she had help."

"Chaos?" Highwind stuck his hands in his pockets.

"Doubt it." Vincent shook his head. "He actively dislikes other demons."

"Could there have been something in Costa del Sol or Gongaga?" I looked questioningly at the two others. "An artifact? A rare materia?"

I comfortingly got a pair of shrugs.

"I could look into that." Highwind straightened. "It could explain why she wanted to wipe those places out."

Vincent stood up. "I don't remember anything like that, but it doesn't mean it wasn't there." As Highwind ambled out the door, Vincent looked towards me. "Was there anything in Nibelheim she could have used? She attacked there next."

I shook my head. "No. Veld had that place nearly stripped to the framework looking for things."

I stopped when I noticed Vincent's almost unnoticeable flinch at Veld's name.

Highwind, with his back to us, didn't notice and walked out. "Okay. I'll focus on the other places." He gave us a casual wave over his shoulder and disappeared.

"Vincent?" I wanted an explanation.

"Not now." He walked to the door, watching the street. "Not now."

Avoidance.

That was bad.

* * *

Please Review.

To those who don't log in to review, thank you. I love reading your comments!


	12. The Sidelines

**Very, Very Annoyed Author's Note:** I've thought this over carefully for the past few weeks and I am getting seriously insulted and very hurt about the constant harping by people about my grammar, word choice, etc. This is fanfiction. Fanfiction is written mainly because people like to write and are willing to share their stories with people who have similar interests. No one is getting paid to do this and writing takes a great deal of time to do. Nitpicking about what an author is sharing is like someone giving you a gift then you start bitching about it. ("I really liked the gift you gave me, but the color sucks. Go return it and get it right this time.") These comments are not even close to being the constructive criticism that anyone likes to receive. They are just rude.

Do I recognize that my stories aren't perfect? Of course. Even if you are implying it, I'm not stupid, but I'm not going to spend more of my time to proofread them more carefully. It just is not that important to me to reach unimportant, grammatical perfection. Since I am not getting paid to do this, I'd rather spend my time enjoying my life.

You don't know how close my stories came to getting removed from the net. They remain because I decided that I wouldn't ruin what other people are obviously enjoying because of the bad manners of a few. If you don't like my stories because of all the mistakes, please, feel free to stop reading.

Once a Man

Chapter 12: The Sidelines

* * *

**Tseng**

Rufus sat quietly behind Reeve. His legs were crossed at the ankles, his hands folded neatly in his lap, and a concerned but confident expression on his face as he listened to Reeve try to convince the people that crowded around the hastily erected platform to not go racing off in a mass expression of stupidity. The platform had been erected in one of Junon's largest town squares, strategically located close to three of the major emergency shelters, announcements of a safety rally had been made for the last two days, and people were told that there would be an official announcement about the continuing crisis.

"While there has not been another attack by the demon army," Reeve said, looking pale and thin, still convalescing from his collapse, "we have not yet found the perpetrator."

The people, many still living cramped into Junon's emergency evacuation shelters, seemed less than impressed. Their eyes were narrowed, shifting disbelievingly around. Some were whispering to their friends, making small dismissive gestures. They didn't look dangerous, but Reeve was not conveying the image of a competent, in-charge individual. He looked weak, pathetic, and pleading. The people, already swaying towards leaving, were getting the opposite impression than the one Reeve wanted them to take back with them.

"If you were to return to your homes, you would all be placing yourselves and your families at risk." Reeve tried to look earnest, tried to reach out to the people, but they weren't listening to him.

Tseng could see that Reeve had already lost this crowd, and he didn't blame them for tuning him out. The conditions they had been living under were primitive: poor sanitation, rising incidents of violence, crowed quarters, no privacy. Only last night there had been two murders and a rape in one of the shelters. It was becoming sadly common, too. With a choice between staying in a shelter, sleeping on a cot, demeaning yourself for a poorly cooked meal, and risking your life to just use a toilet or going home to rebuild after nearly three months of quiet, the people were already filtering out of the city.

Reeve, and to some small extent Rufus, were at this rally to get people to stay in Junon until Lucrecia could be stopped permanently. Reeve, poor idealist that he was, believed the people would be in danger if they left and only needed to have the dangers explained to them. Rufus, the cynic that he was, believed that it was good policy to make an appearance in support of Reeve, but believed that the populace would trample over anyone who stood between them and reclaiming their worldly possessions. He also privately confided that he believed that many were leaving quickly so they could race off and loot the ruins of their one-time home towns.

"We are working on locating the individual responsible." Reeve was beginning to sweat and his friends, Nanaki and Tifa were standing to the side making small discreet motions for him to wrap up his speech.

Tseng's glance shifted around the crowd again as Rufus unfolded himself, preparing to stand. No one seemed to be overtly threatening, and both Reno and Rude, stationed at lookout posts, were scanning the crowd calmly. As Reeve paused to wipe sweat away, Rufus smoothly got to his feet and glided to the other man's side.

"Let me try." He whispered into the older man's ear. "You need to take it easy."

Reeve might have protested, but he caught the looks his friends were giving him and surrendered his position with a last, brief appeal to the crowd and a quick introduction for Rufus.

"I can understand your need to return home." Rufus made a gesture to the city around him, looking as calm and collected as Reeve had looked beaten and nervous. "It is crowded here. You are worried and you want to return to your own lives."

The crowd seemed a bit more receptive. If Reeve hadn't been so worn and ill, he probably could have been more successful. Rufus, strong and well, looked at the crowd and saw what he needed to do. It was too late to convince most of them, but he might sway a few to stay.

"We are not saying that you should not go home." He shook his head. "We are just saying that it would be wise to wait."

Reeve was now slumped tiredly on the bottom step of the platform as Tifa and Nanaki crouched in front of him. A few people from the crowd had noticed and were making their way over. Tseng flicked his fingers to Rude and signaled him to intercept. Angry people often did stupid things and the crowd had a lot of different tempers in it. Some were calm, some frightened, some angry, some frustrated. He didn't need any of the angry or frustrated to make a personal complaint to the weakened leader of WRO.

"The conditions we, and yes, I do mean all of us, are living under are far from comfortable." Rufus leaned towards the crowd. "But it is temporary. We will find this person. We will stop the attacks on our towns and homes."

Rude slipped through the crowd and stepped in the way of the people heading for Reeve. Tseng watched him politely indicate they needed to leave the area, and the people, after taking a good look at Rude's uniform, his height, and the bulk of his shoulders, left. Rude paused to speak with Tifa, who glanced around and nodded, then signaling an all clear, went back to his post. Tifa left Nanaki to talk with Reeve and moved to guard the pair.

"If you do choose to leave, we cannot give even the slightest promise that you will be safe." Rufus looked regretful. "All of WRO's and Shinra's security forces will be needed to guard Junon. We cannot spare anyone to protect people who leave the safety of this city."

The people were shifting around again. Rufus may have made them pause, but a pause was far from a stop. He guessed that about a quarter of the refugees would be gone in a week, and if Lucrecia continued staying quiet, more would flood out of the city. By the end of the month, most would be gone. He guessed it was a form of natural selection. The stupid would get selected out of the gene pool while the smart stayed safe.

Rufus, seeing he had lost his audience, made a few more comments about how once the people left, they would be assuming full responsibility for their own welfare, and bowed away. The crowd milled about. Reno and Rude came quickly to Rufus's side to shield him if necessary. Tifa and Nanaki stood around Reeve protectively and waited until everyone was gathered at the back of the platform.

"That was useless." Rufus glanced back at the crowd. "All we can do now is say I told you so."

"They see no danger." Nanaki paced through the audio personnel who were rushing around dismantling the sound systems that had been under the platform. "They only see that they are uncomfortable, and it had been a long time since any demons have attacked a city. They discount reports of isolated demon attacks, believing it won't happen to them."

"We could send some people to guard them." Reeve was still pale, but after his brief rest, seemed steadier. "A squadron or two…"

"Who would get promptly eaten if they were attacked." Tifa shook her head. "All we would be doing is increasing the body count there while we stretched our people thinner here to cover their spots."

Tseng watched a group of technicians haul a speaker onto the back of a truck. "While most are returning to Edge, there are some that are heading to Mideel, Kalm and Fort Condor. We'd need to sacrifice more than two squads to cover all the people leaving."

Rufus nodded, walking over to the black sedan he and the Turks had arrived in. "We can't spare them. I don't want to endanger the people that are being intelligent by staying in Junon to protect the stupid that want to leave."

Reeve nodded and climbed into the troop transport he and the other members of Avalanche had come in. Nanaki leapt in after him and settled himself on the floor at his friend's feet. Tifa, nodding a quick farewell, jumped in as well and sat next to Reeve, clutching wildly at the seat as the truck lurched forward.

"I'll talk to you later, Reeve." Rufus settled himself in the leather upholstery of the sedan.

Taking one last look around, Tseng closed the door and walked around to the other side of the car. Reno got into the driver's seat with Rude sitting next to him in the passenger seat. Tseng paused for one last sweep of the area then got in to sit by Rufus.

"That went as expected." Rufus fussed with his seatbelt. He hated wearing one, but Tseng kept insisting, and he had learned long ago that sometimes it was better to do as his bodyguard wanted instead of futilely arguing. "I wish Reeve had taken my advice and stayed home. He looks like hell."

"Avalanche argued with him about his appearance." Tseng knocked on the window separating the front seat from the back, indicating for Reno to drive. "He insisted. I even heard that he promised to stay in bed for the rest of the week if they let him come."

Rufus gave a small laugh. "Maybe I should go visit."

Tseng glanced over at his boss, noted his small musing smile and the way his eyes half closed, then pulled out his PDA and consulted the schedule. "We still have an appointment at three with the mayors of Edge and Fort Condor, and you wanted to talk to the project engineers for the refit of the mako plant."

Rufus sighed, "Fine. Fine."

Tseng turned back to his PDA and looked at the schedule for the rest of the week. Ignoring Rufus was often a necessary skill and right now he was not about to waste his energy on untangling the young president's mind. His physical resources were limited. He had lost a great deal of blood during the Bone Village attack and his body liked to remind him, often unexpectedly, that it hadn't appreciated being abused, abruptly healed, barely allowed to rest, and then sent straight back to work.

"How about tomorrow? Do I have time tomorrow?" Rufus wasn't finished playing yet. "Maybe I could squeeze in tomorrow."

"Only three meetings: accounting, the geological survey about the instabilities in the lower city, and the zoning committee." Tseng listed, tapping the screen of his PDA delicately.

"Oh well, maybe in the evening then." Rufus gave an airy sigh. "I should bring him a present. Something he'll enjoy. It's so dull being confined to bed." He tipped his head. "I remember when I was stuck there…"

Tseng remembered, too. He concentrated on his PDA shuffling a few appointments around and madea note to go buy something for Reeve so Rufus could give him a present, perhaps a book. He hoped, but didn't entirely believe, that his boss was only being his usual careless, callous self and those comments had been nothing more than a playful jab, unintentionally painful and not intended to cause harm. Then again, maybe it wasn't. Perhaps he'd miscalculated the carefully professional relationship he had tried to maintain since after the incident with the remnants.

He'd made a mistake, but he didn't know how he would have avoided it. At night, when he managed to finally lay down to rest, his mind would bring it up, marching out each step of his mistake. Or perhaps mistakes was a better term; he'd made a few.

First, he should never have allowed Rufus's attachment to him to go beyond the detached working relationship he'd maintained it at for years. He could have clearly seen that Rufus had been scared and wanted something, or someone to take his mind off the geostigma that spread across his body slowly and painfully killing him. He should have seen it in advance and taken measures to redirect the young president's mind. It was unacceptable for an employee to…

…_become the boss's fuck toy…_

…have a physical relationship with his employer. How he could have avoided it though, besides placing Reno or Rude into the situation, was beyond him. Rufus had made it a direct order. His entire life was about obeying the orders given to him by the president of Shinra. To disobey… unthinkable.

Second, he should have never let the relationship go beyond the first time. It was bad enough to let it happen once,but to allow it over a period of weeks was again, unacceptable. He should have been able to remove himself from the situation. He could have shifted schedules to minimize his time alone with Rufus, but it hadn't happened. Instead, Rufus demanded his presence and he had acquiesced without comment.

All because of mistake number three, the big mistake, the one he was still trying to manage, that he actually had come to care, personally, for Rufus. He'd let everything happen because he had deluded himself that Rufus, self-centered brat that he was, actually cared for him in return.

It had been when Rufus had been finally cured of geostigma that the enormity of his mistake, his delusion, had been driven home. He was no more than an employee. Rufus was the president. While Rufus had tossed their relationship aside without a single thought and would probably look confused if it was brought up, Tseng had been forced to quickly reorient himself from lover back to someone slightly above office furniture, a convenience, someone to smooth away all the bumps in the road but could easily be replaced if he became damaged or troublesome. It had only been his self-made illusions that had made him ever believe that he'd been more.

Tseng concentrated on memorizing the rest of the schedule, never looking up to see Rufus's worried eyes watching him.

**Zack**

Zack wondered why he'd never insisted on a motorcycle before. They were great. The feeling of wind, the hum of the motor between his legs, the vivid, up close and in your face scenery, it was the way to travel. No wonder Cloud spent so much time playing delivery boy.

"Yeehaaa!" He zoomed past Sephiroth who was keeping pace with Cloud.

From the look on his companion's faces, he'd just garnered his daily quota of curses and threats. Seph he expected it from, but it seemed the longer Cloud hung out with the general, the more serious and somber his friend became. He'd have to do something about that. He couldn't stand to have Seph turn Cloud into a mini-me. It was hard enough to keep Seph from being Seph, but to have to continuously drag Cloud out of an introspective funk would probably send him scampering to Aer to plead for hisclone, Zack, the Second (1), to be allowed to come save him from their moody vibes.

The group of refugees they were escorting from the outskirts of Mideel in a convoy of old school busses and ancient vans waved as he raced past. A few of the children called out hoping he'd stop and give them a ride. He gave them a brief wave back and continued racing forward. It wasn't like he was going to tell them he'd spotted something down the road. Better for them to think he was just goofing around again. No worries that way.

He reached the spot he'd noticed and found another group of people tiredly leaning against their broken down truck. There were seven: two mothers with a total of four screaming children and a exhausted looking elderly man.

"Howdie!" Zack came to a halt giving them a grin. "Can I help?"

The women and man eyed him warily. "Just resting."

By the way the truck was listing, Zack bet they were resting while they tried to figure out how to fix a broken axel. The road, one of the main evacuation routes, had become a pitted, rippled nightmare from the heavy traffic and its original substandard construction. Damn Shinra and its cheap roads.

"Well, okay." He scratched his head looking like a little boy while he glanced around. "We've got a convoy coming through. If you need any help or anything getting to Junon, we've got tools and stuff."

He didn't see anything. Just the rolling hills of the eastern edge of the Midgar Range. The truck seemed empty, and there didn't seem to be anything suspicious. Sadly, some enterprising people had come up with a neat way to make money, setting traps for the incoming refugees as they made their way to Junon.

The basic set up was a blocked road or a broken down vehicle. When refugees stopped to either remove the obstacle or offer assistance, a group of armed men would attack. From there, it depended on the viciousness of that particular group of thugs as to what happened. Some refugees got off with only losing all their remaining valuables, a hard enough experience considering they had for the most part lost everything else. Others lost considerably more.

"Why you heading that way?" One of the women gave him a sour look, nodding her chin towards the road to Junon. "Everyone's headed out."

Zack shrugged. "You know people. A few thousand demons show up and destroy a few major cities and they get nervous."

"No demons for months." The old man spat. "And I never saw one. Lived all my life on the western plains and never saw a demon. Hell, I'm guessing it's just some kind of trick. While we're all crowded in to Junon, they're probably doing stuff with our land, stealing our property, making off with our livestock."

"Nah. I was out there just a few weeks ago. Just grass." Zack shrugged. "Didn't see any chocobos though. That was odd."

"See, their taking the livestock." The old man looked vindicated. "I was breeding mountain chocobos, and I'll bet they're all gone."

Cloud came up in a swirl of dust and settled his bike next to his. "Hi."

"They're heading out towards the plains." He nodded to the group. "They're just resting."

"Oh." Cloud peered around, checking the land for ambushes. "Too dangerous. Be careful of robbers and try to stay close together at night. Monsters are showing up in odd places. There's also a few reports of demon attacks."

The man huffed and the women only started looking beligerant. Zack shrugged and straightened his bike to go.

"Wait. We've got a broken axel." One of the women, nodded to the truck. "We need help fixing it."

Cloud shook his head. "Nope. We're taking people in to safety. Anyone leaving is doing it without help."

"You can't leave us here!" She stepped forward threateningly.

Cloud turned his bike, refusing to even get drawn into the argument. The convoy was already approaching. Sephiroth was driving next to the largest bus keeping a cautious eye on everything. Inside, a few of the youngest were waving to him trying to catch his attention.

"Hey! You listening to me?!" The woman made a grab for Zack's arm, but he avoided her easily.

"Good luck to ya'll." Zack revved his bike. "Say hi to Aer for me when you see her."

He zoomed off with Cloud to continue scanning the road ahead. Seph didn't pause with the group around the broken truck, only giving them a brief nod and a suspicious look as they yelled curses at him and the rest of the convoy.

"You'll be sorry! You should turn around now and go home!" The old man screamed, shaking his fists at the startled faces of the refugees. "Their stealing your land! It's all a hoax!"

"I wish it was." Zack raced forward spotting something else by the side of the road that made him curious.

**Lucrecia**

James stood next to his darling, watching the big, black man snarl at them. The teen glanced over at the other tank where the other victim was still recovering from the accident that had almost killed the three of them. It upset his beloved that the black man was doing so poorly, but without her skill and perseverance they all would have died.

"I've tried everything." Lucrecia shook her head. "Nothing I do seems to help. He just gets worse."

"You've done all you can." He nodded to the man. "Think of all the positives. We're doing well," he gestured toward the mako tank, "You saved us, and while he may be, well, mentally unstable, he is alive. Considering how serious the accident was, you've done miracles."

James wasn't entirely sure what had happened. The accident that had struck the three of them down was gone from his mind, along with all of his memories from before. He wasn't worried. Lucrecia said it was only temporary, and who was he to tell her she was wrong. It had only been through her kindness, determination, and courage that he had managed to survive.

He'd be forever grateful to his angel for saving him.

"Maybe…" her voice trailed away. "Maybe there is nothing there to save. I didn't know him from before. He might have been like this before the accident. It might explain why he was in chains." She gave the man a pitying look. "Poor man."

"So what are we going to do with him?" He watched as Lucrecia turned and walked over to the mako tank that had been set up to heal the other victim. It was an extreme measure, but the accident had been bad and the injuries they had all received had been terrifying. It was only pure luck that his angel had been there to save them.

"I suppose we should let him rest. Poor dear, perhaps he'll calm down." She put one hand on the tank. "I'll make some inquiries and see if I can find his family." She turned her head and smiled at him. "Don't you worry about it. I don't want you to get sick on me again."

He smiled, walking to her and pulling her into his arms. "I'll be careful, but what of you? You shouldn't wear yourself out."

She patted his chest fondly, her fingers stroking lightly over his tee-shirt. "I'm fine. I just worry about you. You were so sick for so long…"

"I'm fine." He pulled her closer, loving the feeling of her nestling against him. If he was tired, and occasionally still got dizzy and disoriented, and food had lost all appeal, that was his problem. He didn't want to worry her with it. He hadn't lost that much weight. He could handle it.

"Okay, but if you feel sick, you tell me immediately." She wrapped her arms around his slender waist and gently traced her fingers down his smooth cheek. "I couldn't bear it if I lost you, my love."

"You won't." He rested his cheek against the top of her head, their hair mixing together. He loved her hair: the smell, the feel, the way it swayed around them as they made love.

She suddenly pushed away, "Wait. Wait… There was a man… now what was his name… he used to work for Shinra." She pursed her lips softly, tempting him to lean down and kiss them, but perhaps later. "Hojo. That's it, his name is Hojo. He was a research scientist for Shinra."

"So?" He watched her face, enjoying the emotions that flickered across her delicate features.

"He might be able to help." She stretched up on her tip toes and gave him a soft kiss. "If we find him, he might be able to help us."

"If that's what you want." He licked his lips trying to catch her taste. "Where is he?"

"Well, that's a bit of a problem." She bit her lip and looked down. "Remember those people I told you about? The ones responsible for your accident? Well, they have him. They've probably drugged him to make him do what they want, but maybe…"

"Up north then." He shrugged. "If you want him, he's yours. I'll go get him."

"No. No. I don't want you to put yourself in any danger." His angel looked tearfully up at him. "Not when you've been so sick." She stepped back into the circle of his arms and hugged him. "Promise me, you won't do anything silly."

"Sure. No problem." James, who his long time friend Vincent would have instantly recognized as Veld, slender and looking no more than nineteen, glanced over at Barret who was chewing on his own fingers and growling. "Whatever you want. I'll do it."

**Cid**

"Nothing? " Cid grunted as he fell into the chair in front of the Highwind's communication panel. "You sure?"

Tifa, slumped tiredly at her consol, nodded. "There weren't many survivors, so it didn't take long to interview them. No artifacts, no materia. The most we got was a vague report that someone thought, there might, and I stress might, have been a mastered heal materia in Costa del Sol."

"Didn't Spike sell one there years ago when we were buying that beach house?" Cid scratched his stubble.

"Yes, I think so." She yawned. "Cloud will be back later today. I'll see if he ever heard of anything in those areas. With his delivery service, he hears a lot of gossip."

"Fine. Fine." Cid waved his hand as he reached for the disconnect. "I'm going to go deal with all the shit that's been piling up here. Tell, Reeve to take it easy."

"Okay, Cid. Bye." Tifa's image flicked off with a small snapping sound.

Cid stretched his arms over his head and pulled himself to his feet. The Highwind was quiet around him. The crew had long ago left and settled into the city. Since there was no more fuel for his baby to fly, the only time people were aboard was for routine checks and to use the Highwind's communication systems. Except Cid. He couldn't abandon his baby.

He walked through the silent halls stroking his fingers across a bulkhead here or a panel there. The way things were shaping up, it was possible that his baby would never fly again. The high grade fuel his baby needed was gone. Corel had shut down. The processing plants were gone. Even the old mako system was in pieces. Nanaki had suggested that he try to convert the Highwind to solar, but the technology to do that was years, maybe decades away. By the time he got the tech, the Highwind would be a sad heap of rust.

"Don't worry, baby. I'll think of sumthin'." He patted the ship's hull as he stepped down the cargo ramp.

The city was spread out around him. Archaeologists were excavating around the edge of the city with their tents and precise lines. People were bustling here and there. The market, more a group of people selling vegetables from their gardens, was doing a brisk business as people stocked up for various meals. The school that met in an out of doors amphitheater had just released their students and the kids were racing off yelling and shrieking through the town. Houses glittered in the sun and the streets glowed golden.

He stepped down off the ramp and tapped the security panel, closing the ship up for the day. He'd been working nonstop for nearly three days. It was time to go home and see Shera, drink a nice cup of chamomile tea, and hit the sack. He twisted a bit as he watched a pair of men walk past lugging baskets of potatoes.

"Hey, sexy. Wanna have a good time?" Shera stood a few yards away smiling at him and doing a slow bump and grind as he grinned at her.

"What's it gonna cost me?" He ambled over shoving his hands in his pockets and acting like a young punk approaching a hooker.

"Oh, I'm an easy kinda girl. Feed me dinner and I'm yours." Shera wiggled over to him swaying her hips and eyeing him. "What am I saying? Just let me at that luscious body of yours. I'll pay."

He laughed and pulled her into his arms. "I'm not cheap. I only perform for quality eats."

"I've got…" Shera rummaged in her jacket pockets, "a half an old package of peanut butter crackers."

"Sold! Come ta Poppa, baby." Cid playfully smacked noisy kisses on her cheeks and neck.

"Err…uuhhh…Captain…don't kill me…" A squeaky teenagery voice whimpered.

Cid looked up to see a young, very young, WRO soldier standing a few yards away blushing and looking like a kid who'd just walked in on his parents having sex. "Whatcha want?"

Shera gave a soft sigh and pulled away, running a hand over her hair, smoothing back any stray hairs that might want to curl around her face. "I'll go get dinner ready. Do you want mint or chamomile?"

She knew him too well.

"Chamomile." He muttered and marched over to the kid. "Spill it junior, and it better be good."

"Aaaaahhh…eeerrrr…well, sir, we've gotten a report from some of the perimeter guards. There's been some problems keeping people out of the forest. They're looking for firewood and…" The kid looked wildly around as he gave his report, as if hoping some rescue would come save him.

"You're bothering me 'cause some folks are looking for firewood?" Cid wondered if he asked nice Vince would dispose of the kid's body after he speared the kid to death.

"Well, the those malldancer's are dangerous and some people have been getting hurt." The kid decided to address Cid's kneecaps.

"If they're so fuckin' stupid as to go up there and fuck around with malldancers just so they can get their asses chewed by a bunch of pissed off trees, let 'em." Cid stomped away, heading towards home and Shera.

"But, sir, we…" The boy stumbled after him.

"Shit, kid." Cid waved a hand, shooing him away, "Go away. Tell the asswipes to stay away from the trees and if they get anywhere near the top of that path they get to spend a week sweeping the streets."

"A…a we..week?" The kid stuttered.

"Yeah. A week. Now go away." Cid went around a corner and headed for the small conch shell house he and Shera had fixed up.

While it didn't have things he really liked, such as a place for his Tiny Bronco and room enough to bring stuff home to work on, Shera loved it. She'd taken up the rest of Bone Village's late occupants' hobby of gardening. Flowers, vegetables, and other plants spread around their new home in a colorful weave of vegetation. The windows he had spent a day boring into the sides of the shell had window boxes of red and white geraniums with a few nasturtiums tossed in for color, and to his horror, salad fixings. A rough woven, colorful mat with shoes beside it sat at the front door, reminding him to take off his boots before he trekked mud into the neat, well-swept interior. He kicked off his footgear and pushed open the door.

"I'm home," he called, looking around the small living room.

While it had room for a small loveseat and his favorite arm chair that had lurked in his cabin on the Highwind, it didn't have much room for anything else. That had been one of the problems with this city; all the houses were tiny to the point of being little more than closets. The only luxury this house had was instead of a set of bedrooms upstairs, there was a small loft that overlooked the living areas downstairs.

"Hi, I'll be right down," Shera called, poking her head over the upper balcony's railing. "Tea's on the table."

He wound his way back to the small kitchen. It was in the back of the house and had a tiny stove with two burners, a shoe box sized oven, and a refrigerator that tucked under the counter. The table, an old bedside table from the airship, had two folding chairs neatly tucked behind it. They had never used them since one person would be sitting in the living room and the other in the middle of the kitchen, but they still were clean and neat.

As promised, a softly steaming pot of tea sat on the table next to his favorite mug. Shera had spread a lace napkin as a table cloth and had set a small ceramic vase with a couple of flowers in it on one corner. It looked homey and pleasant. He poured himself a cup and with surprising grace, wove back through the crowded furniture to sit on the loveseat.

"What did he want?" Shera came down the stairs, running her hand through her now freed hair.

"Nothing much. Just some folks acting dumb." Cid sipped his tea watching her head towards the kitchen.

She poked around in the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of lemonade. "Well, I still have my pack of crackers."

He laughed. "Come over here, babe."

* * *

Please review!

Please give a round of thanks to Strange and Intoxicating rsa for her much appreciated betaing skills!

(1) Cloud, the First died in Nibelheim (sword through stomach) as did Zack, the First (broken back and likely internal injuries after getting the snot beaten out of him by an insane Sephiroth and tossed casually down to splat on top of a mako tube). The two that were on the truck were in identical mako tubes and alone in the lab. If there is a Cloud, the First, there must therefore be a Zack the first. Thus, there has to be a Cloud, the Second and a Zack, the Second. Zack, the First is now zooming around with Cloud, the Second and Sephiroth. Zack, the Second probably will not make an appearance in this story. He might in a later story, but not this one.


	13. Blinded

**Now a Monster**

**Chapter 13: Blinded**

* * *

**Vincent**

If I hadn't already had enough proof that my chick was out of his mind, I got plenty when Cid dropped by, mooched breakfast, threatened everyone's well being with second-hand smoke, and casually mentioned that Sephiroth, Cloud, and Zack would be coming up to the city for a visit today. Hojo promptly started acting like he'd consumed a few dozen hypers and maybe got hit by a confuse materia, scrambling around, fussing with our bedding (As if I was going to let Sephiroth, long-lost son or not, oust me from my bed.), darting over to find the files about the demon attacks, cleaning, and (Leviathan and all my ancestors have mercy on me and my son) cooking. Cid, being a sensible person, grabbed a last gulp of tea and a slice of toast then fled.

After Hojo had woken up from his illness, we had moved to our own shellhouse. It was a nice enough place in the shape of a jujube top-shell. It was a soft caramel gold color, and was not in the best of shape which was why it was still left after everyone else had settled in. The lights didn't work in that house. The floors had disappeared long ago, leaving only dirt and sand in their place. The walls were solid though and the plumbing was in good condition. It took a weekend of Cid, Davies, Cooper, some of the "boys", who had long ago become old duffers, and me plastering, laying new flooring, fixing minor plumbing leaks, and setting in cabinets, appliances, and candle sconces to make the place livable. Hojo helped by staying out of the way.

How my chick was ever able to live alone without killing himself with a small tool like a screwdriver is going to be my own private mystery.

Cid merrily had his crew pull some of my furnishings that I had left behind in my cabin on the Highwind to our new house, and between the cussing and moaning, it became comfortable enough. I hadn't left much: a bed that I'd picked up second hand in Kalm after spending three weeks with my feet dangling over the end of the small bunk that had been part of the cabin's original furnishings; a soft, wine red wool carpet that Tifa found leaning against a dumpster in Nibelheim that had a coffee stain which Aeris had removed after a brief conference with Elmira and an a small, smelly battalion of cleaning solutions; an old chest of drawers with a cracked leg that had been part of a "deal" that Cloud had struck with that weapons maker outside of Gongaga which had also involved the exchange of thousands of gil, one kiss from Tifa, and our acquisition of the dresser, an old tattered quilt that was supposed to be an heirloom which Cid used to lay on while working on the Highwind's engines, two tame jumpings that had promptly jumped off the deck of the airship at high altitude much to Yuffie's wailing anguish and everyone else's intense relief, and a promise of a new, custom made sword for Cloud; and a recliner that I paid a small fortune for in Junon after falling into it in exhaustion during one of Tifa, Yuffie, and Aeris's shopping sprees and realizing it was the most comfortable chair I'd ever been in.

A month after the attack, some of Bone Village's former inhabitants had cautiously raided their own homes, and I salvaged the old wood stove, his beloved curtain, and the old bone table and chairs from Hojo's home. I also went to Veld's and came back with a variety of mementos I didn't even realize had kept. How he managed to find Quicksilver, I don't know, but I found it in a gun case under his bed, polished and gleaming like it had the day he first gave it to me when I became the Turk's leader. I had sold it in the ruins of Corel, thoughtlessly trading it for a handful of gil to buy a lifetime pass to the Gold Saucer. I found an old tattered scrapbook filled with pictures of his family, his wedding picture, us as young Turks, the pictures from my promotion party of him dancing naked on a table, and, interestingly, a few photos of Sephiroth. There were a few trinkets I picked up that, considering where they had been placed, had probably been important to him. I also took his wedding ring that I found sitting on his bedside table; an old crystal, whiskey decanter set I had given him after he won a bet about how fast Gast's pretty, new secretary would spread her legs for her boss (One week three days…I had bet under a week, but had miscalculated her slowness in realizing that her employment depended on her willingness to bend over her boss's desk and drop her panties. Veld had bet over a week. We both got a surprise when she took her new found talents up to the presidential suite and got promoted three weeks later to head of a newly made department: Botanical Logistics. When she had the bad taste to get pregnant three months later, Veld and I were ordered to help her "deal" with her condition, which translated as "take her out of the gene pool permanently." She was gone and replaced in a couple of days by a blond doll of a girl with a vapid smile and a penchant for forgetting pieces of her wardrobe in the employee lounge.); an armchair that I had noticed he liked to sit in when we had stayed with him; and a his bed for the tiny guestroom in the shellhouse. It made me feel a bit better to have some of his things around me, a psychological band-aide. Since I couldn't save him, I was saving some of the things he treasured.

"Vincent, where is…oh, there it is." Hojo rushed past where I was, more or less, hiding in the garden. He knew where I was, but I was out of direct line of sight. Today, out of sight was truly out of mind with him.

He bolted back into the house toting a hoe, and I went back to looking at the shell of seeds I had recovered from the spot I hid them in long ago. While our little shell had been one of the worst preserved houses, it had the largest garden with multiple terraces, its own private brook, and a wide swath of trees that only had needed a little encouragement to burst into soft greenery. I was considering putting the little seeds in one of the upper terraces where they would get the most light.

"Dirt! There's dirt on the floor!" My hatchling came running out of the house waving the hoe. "Where's the broom? I need the broom…NO! THE MOP!"

I fingered the seeds and hoped my son was used to Hojo by now. Seeing my chick raised him, I was sure he wouldn't even blink over the sudden frenzy. "May I have the hoe back?"

I ducked as the hoe was thrown in my direction. Hojo barely paused, giving me only a wild, annoyed look as he raced off with his feathers in an uproar. He'd been at it for nearly five hours and I hoped he'd get tired and collapse soon. I hadn't had lunch. I supposed I could go over to Cid's. He owed me a few meals and I would be out of the way of flying garden tools.

"Squid! Where is the squid! I know I bought one! Where did it go?"

Sephiroth owed me for that one. No matter what he had done in the past, boiled squid with hollandaise sauce was not something I felt he deserved. I put the shell down, hiding it again just in case any hyper-active chocobos raced past in a flurry of gangling legs and fluttering wings. "I'm going over to Cid's."

"Cookies! We have no cookies!"

Probably a good thing. Then again, if it prompted him into a playing with fire to light the oven in the state he was in, it could get ugly fast. "I'll make them when I get back."

"With frosting!" He appeared at the door dripping wet, wielding a mop, and panting. "He likes frosting with sprinkles."

I nodded, refraining putting in my opinion that Sephiroth probably hadn't eaten a cookie with frosting and sprinkles since he was seven. "I'll see if Shera has any sprinkles."

He nodded so vigorously I wondered if he might get a concussion then raced back into the house. I tried not to wince at the crash I heard. It was probably nothing more than one of the iron candelabras that had fallen over. They were sturdy, and while my chick was less than mentally composed, he was physically nearly indestructible. At least that was my rational as I escaped.

I walked through the city. Our shellhouse was on the western edge of the city. I suppose it might even have counted as being in the country. Still, the City of the Ancient's was hardly a sprawling metropolis. It barely qualified for a small town with its cluster of small houses and few municipal buildings. It only took a moderate walk to reach Cid's.

He was outside in his garden when I arrived. Papers and files were spread around where he sat cross-legged on a picnic blanket. He was concentrating on one file, puffing on his cigarette and muttering softly to himself about budget cuts. Reeve was still being carefully watched over in Junon by Tifa and Yuffie (poor man) so most of his paperwork got transported up to Cid via one of Cloud's prized gold chocobos.

"Cid." I paused at the rock wall that delineated his property.

He looked up and grinned. "Hey, Vince. How's the cleaning going?"

"He wants cookies with frosting and sprinkles." I came over to him and looked for a place to sit. I had every intention of waiting as long as I could before I went back to the homecoming war that Hojo was fighting. As much as I loved my chick, I knew a losing battle when I saw one. "Do you have sprinkles?"

"That's Shera's department, but I don't think so." He passed me the file he'd been holding. "Look at this piece of shit. We're getting our asses chewed by demons and some dumb fuck wants to cut the military budget and reallocate the funds to rebuilding Edge."

I nodded and looked at the file. "I heard similar things from Reeve. During the Deepground incident, there was a group that wanted to try for a diplomatic solution, so they slashed into Reeve's budgets."

Cid grunted and went back to flipping through the files. "The kid and his friends are going to be here by sunset. You got any ideas where they can stay?"

That was Cid's way of prodding me to let one of them stay in the Veld's bed. I had thought it over and had already rejected the idea. Cloud would be best rooming with Zack, which I supposed they could do over at Davies and Bettina's. It was Sephiroth that was difficult. Lodging the man who once tried to destroy the world in a fit of madness was a bit much for most people, and I didn't want him staying so close to my chick. Hojo would need time to de-stress from this, and having the source of his stress in the next room might be too much of a strain on his already fragile sanity.

"How about on the Highwind?" I wasn't surprised at Cid's grimace. "Or split them up. Cloud and Zack at Davies' and Sephiroth…"

"Yeah?" Cid glanced over at me.

"Could we set up a room in the main building? There used to be beds there."

"Nope. We converted everything into the new WRO headquarters. I ain't letting him sleep on top of Reeve's files." Cid slapped down a file and snatched up another. "Come on, Vince, you've got room, and he's your kid."

"No. He's not staying near Hojo." I shook my head and did something I rarely do with my friends, used a Turk don't-fuck-with-me stare. It's something that Turks pick up, a dead-eyed, I-don't-care-if-you-survive, look that is nearly part of the field exam you have to pass to get promoted to active duty. It's the deadness that's so effective, making the recipient stop and wonder for a few moments just what is the truth and what is the façade that you might be constructing. Tseng and his group all knew it, probably taught to them by Veld, but they didn't have the finer points down. They didn't have the knowledge when to stop and let your normal face snap back into place so the recipient starts worrying about what is going on in your head. They just let it stay, letting it become their working mask.

Cid got the message, shifting about uncomfortably. I hated doing it, but Hojo's well being was more important to me than Cid's comfort. It was a calculated risk, but I was sure enough of Cid's ability to bounce back that it was worth it. He'd probably be pounding on my door tomorrow snarling at me for jerking him around, but in the meantime Sephiroth would have found someplace else to sleep.

"Well, okay…fuck Vince…" Cid grabbed up a random file and put it back down again. "I guess we could set up a cot or something for him at HQ, but…"

I got to my feet, my most polite face snapping into place. "Thank you, Cid. I do appreciate it."

I retreated quickly. Cid would start putting things together too quick if I remained, and I didn't want Sephiroth arriving at my door with a pile of blankets and a message from Cid to quit shitting with him.

My chick was gone when I got home with only a casserole that was obviously dropped off by Bettina in his place. The house was a disaster of tracked-in dirt, fallen candelabras, shredded lettuce that could have been a salad if it wasn't flung around the kitchen like confettii, and piles of disemboweled files. I picked up the rake he'd dropped and put it back outside then went to find where my chick had wandered off to.

I guessed Bettina's, probably to beg for cookies with sprinkles or some other culinary oddity that Sephiroth had once enjoyed as a child. He might have followed her back to her place after she dropped off the food and was in the middle of her tiny kitchen insanely dithering about the color frosting Sephiroth liked while waving a shovel. I walked back out and headed over there keeping an eye open for stray chocobo chicks as I wound my way through the residential area.

Davies was out sitting on a chair, leaning back against the wall by the front door. He seemed relaxed and at ease, almost napping in the afternoon sun.

"Have you seen Hojo?" I couldn't hear any panicked warking, so I guessed my chick was either unconscious or not there.

"No. Might be off with Bettina. She dropped a casserole off at your place." Davies yawned sleepily for a second. "She said she was going to go by the school. Something about school lunches."

I nodded and left him to his nap. I didn't have much hope that my chick was suddenly interested in school lunches, but I could see if he was following Bettina around searching for garden implements.

The city had settled in the last month. People had started settling into routines. The Bone Villagers had gone back to their past time of archaeology, and every day they had a new discovery to show off. Some of the transplants from Edge had set up shops, markets, and were already organizing civic committees. A few people from Mideel took over a rather ramshackle shell and had converted it into a distillery where you could sit out under a fluttering canopy to drink rum and eat whatever the cook made for the day. Cooper, and his kids, had opened a small coffee shop across from the distillery and merrily sobered up the lunch and dinner crowd before they headed home or back to work.

I liked it. I liked the mix of people, the quiet of the streets, the humorous stubbornness of the people who walked past me. It was the perfect place for my hatchling to be. No one hissed accusations at him or so much as gave him a frown, because no one cared that he had once been Shinra's notorious evil genius. They had their own problems, and one more lost, confused person was hardly something to get upset over. Where he would have once been met with a jail cell, or perhaps with a sharp knife after being pulled into a back alley, he was greeted with waves and hellos when we walked through the city running errands or just enjoying being together.

Bettina was just emerging from the school's archway down to the amphitheater when I spotted her. I didn't see Hojo trailing after her, so I guessed he was off raiding the city for candy sprinkles and trowels.

"Bettina, have you seen Hojo?" I nodded hello as I passed a couple taking their baby on a walk.

Bettina shook her head. "He wasn't home when I dropped off the macaroni and cheese."

I frowned. I hadn't been gone that long and that casserole she had left still had steam rising from it. I turned and walked home quickly, leaving Bettina calling questions at my back. He couldn't have gone far. I doubted he went towards the caverns and the elaborate warren of tunnels there, and Cid had people on the path up to the forest, so he had to be in the city. The question was where would one mildly deranged chocobo chick go wandering off to?

I checked the house and found nothing to point out where he might have wandered. Everything was out of place so checking for one odd thing was neigh impossible. I looked around the garden and again found nothing. He'd been racing madly back and forth all morning, so there were hundreds of footprints blurred into the ground. I turned and scanned the streets, but there was no sign of him. He couldn't have just disappeared. He had to be somewhere.

**Hojo**

It was one of those fine rare mornings where you wake up and everything in your life is perfect. Even before you pull yourself yawning and stretching out of your blankets, with the smell of breakfast hanging in the air, you know it is going to be a great day. The sun is bright, but not obnoxiously trying to bake you to death. A soft, playful wind occasionally whisks by to play around you for a moment ruffling your hair and tugging at your clothes then scurries off to tumble through the trees. The air is sweet and filled with an excited energy. All the world is full of wonderful possibilities that are waiting for you to find them. The perfect day.

"Hojo! Breakfast!"

If you don't know how to cook, I strongly recommend you finding a lover that can do it for you.

I grinned as I turned away from the garden and headed back inside. I had been firmly shooed out when I tried to help by cracking a few eggs, apparently my spending five minutes trying to chase a errant piece of eggshell out of the batter hadn't won me any cooking awards. Instead, I got to enjoy the garden. It needed a lot of work, but that really wasn't my department.

"Hojo!"

"Coming!" I hurried. I didn't want to appear ungrateful after all the exertion my love had undergone on my behalf.

I really was getting to be a burden, and after being sick and then the whole debacle of me getting myself lost… I was really treading on thin ice. At the very least, I could be grateful and supportive. I scampered into the kitchen and was greeted with a relieved smile and a wave for me to sit down.

"I thought I was going to have to send someone to go find you again." My sweet wife came over, put our plates down on the table, and tapped a kiss on my cheek.

"It's such a beautiful day… I guess I got caught up in it." I politely waited until she seated herself before starting in on the meal she had placed in front of me.

"Such a dreamer." She daintily picked at her meal. "I always love that about you."

"Aren't you feeling well?" I nodded to her plate. "You usually eat faster."

"Just feeling a bit queasy this morning." She patted her stomach. "I'll eat more later."

As any expectant father knows, don't mess with your wife when she has morning sickness. My angel contented herself with sipping mint tea and nibbling on toast while I finished the wonderful meal she'd prepared of waffles, eggs, and sausage. I would have to make sure she ate something later. I knew her. She'd get caught up in our work and forget to eat.

The dimwitted Turk came in and glowered at me as I scooped up the dishes and went to wash them. Why my darling wanted that lout around, I'll never understand. We'd be better off with a trained blugu watching our backs than that moron, but she said he made her feel safe. As soon as Gast got back from Midgar though, I was going to request that the oaf get reassigned to a more fitting post, like a sewage plant.

"Just wanted to let you know. A few wolves have been seen, so if you're planning on taking any walks, stay close to town." The Turk stood there eyeing my wife, pretending I wasn't in the room. "If you need to go out for anything, though, I'll be happy to come with you."

I trusted my angel, so I didn't react to his blatant attempt to seduce her. She'd chosen me and rejected the dolt, so I had no worries. It only grated because they were once lovers and the thought that he had once put his filthy hands on her made me want to stuff him in the nearest closet with a skeeskee.

"No thank you, James. We'll be working in the lab today." My angel smiled over at me. "We need to make up for lost time. We're behind schedule on the Jenova project. Professor Gast called while you were out in the garden. He said the president is getting anxious and wants results."

"Of course." I came over and helped her out of her chair. "We'll begin immediately."

The Turk nodded and sulked out of the room, probably to go into town and defile some other woman with his disgusting presence. Once he was out of the room, my day regained its cheerful brightness. My darling and I went back to the lab and began our work.

Our research had changed during my illness. A huge breakthrough, or complication depending on your viewpoint, had arisen while I had been incapacitated. While experimenting on Jenova's interaction with various genetic matrixes, a rather startling event had occurred; Jenova had taken some of those codes and created her very own person, or at least a being that resembled a person. It didn't have higher brain functions as most people do. Instead, it was more of an animal in human form. It was quite amazing to look at. It seemed to be no more than a huge, maybe a little too muscular, man and from its pigmentation and some of its features, it seemed to be from genetic stock from around Corel. However, that is where its similarities to a human ended. It had no language. It only snarled, growled, or occasionally whimpered. When presented with even the most rudimentary tests, it reacted like a feral animal. My angel tried to teach it basic things (soft hearted darling that she is, she couldn't bear to see anything that looked so human in so much pain), but it didn't comprehend and tried to attack her. It even hurt itself on occasion.

Gast had been called back by the president to discuss this new development, leaving us in the care of that dolt Turk and taking most of the staff with him. Not that I cared. Every moment I had with my dear angel was a treasure to me. I only wish he'd taken that wife ogling jerk with him.

Jenova, our original project, had also become more interesting. Using the same DNA samples, it had coalesced from being a semi-alive sample of what might have once been an Ancient and had taken on a new human form, a young, slender, blond woman. She didn't respond to any outside stimulus, but it was still quite an amazing occurrence. It brought up the possibility that one day, maybe even soon, we would be able to communicate with her and perhaps learn the secrets of the Ancients.

Our task, that my dearest angel had shouldered all by herself while I was ill, was to examine the male creature to see how Jenova had created him, and to monitor Jenova herself. I admit, it wasn't the most pleasant task I had ever been asked to do. The creature was vicious. It had to be shot with a tranquilizer dart or put under a sleep spell to be removed from its cage safely. When it was placed on the examination table, it had to be strapped down to prevent it attacking.

Since I'd had the foresight to banish that lout Turk from the labs, I was the lucky person that got to do the drugging, hauling, and strapping. This wasn't fun. My hip, that I broke sometime during my delirium, ached and creaked at me, leaving me hobbling around like an old man. My health, while vastly improved from the months-long fever that had made my sweet darling fear I would die, was still a bit fragile. My body ached, I had a low to medium grade headache most of the time, and while it seemed I was eating more than I ever had, I was still rapidly losing weight.

"Dearest, have you completed the tests on the mako samples?" My sweet Lucrecia came and stood next to me while I tried to regain my breath.

"On the table." I wheezed, cursing the illness that had brought me down to being this pathetic wreck. "Finished last night."

She gave me a small kiss and went searching for the results I had left for her. "You shouldn't stay up so late, my love. You know you're still recovering."

"If that dimwitted Turk, Vincent would stop snoring…" I grumbled, straightening my back and wincing at the audible cracks and pops it gave. I really was turning into an old man.

"Vincent?" Lucrecia turned to me with a puzzled frown. "Who's Vincent?"

"The Turk." I paused, watching her bite her lip worriedly. "Vincent."

"Love, his name is James. The only Vincent in the area is the baker's son." She came over, touching my arm tentatively. "The little boy with the black hair who's always playing with that toy gun?" she prompted, looking upset.

I shook my head, feeling a bit dizzy. "Toy?"

"Yes, you remember. That little rascal scared you just before you got sick. He popped out from behind the fence waving that gun and you thought he…" She trailed off looking more worried than before. "Sweetheart, why don't you go lie down. I'll be up in a few moments and bring you something cold to drink. You're tired."

"No. No. I'm fine." I pulled myself up straight. "I just got the names mixed up." I gave her a sheepish grin. "I never was good at names."

The specimen was awake by this time and thrashing against the restraints. We were testing to see how its body reacted to mako. So far, its responses were well within human normal range, at least physiologically. Lucrecia's tests on its mental abilities still showed it functioning at a level of a lobster, a few basic reflex patterns, a bit of neurologic activity, but no hint of sentience. While Jenova had done a brilliant job getting the form of a human correct, she still had problems with the finer points. Gast had made a few notes about the specimen's beastial nature, and wanted to see if there was any way to either copy Jenova's procedure and perhaps improve on it, or, failing that, figure out if this new manifestation of power was something we'd have to worry about. There were enough dangerous creatures on our Planet, we didn't need a breeding population of monsterish men showing up.

My angel stood on her tip toes to press a quick kiss to my lips then gave me a brave smile. "Okay, just don't overdo it. I don't know what I would do if anything were to happen to you now."

We both got to work. She headed off to study Jenova and to work with the new mako data I'd completed. I went off to prepare the dosages of mako that I had set aside last night. I was hoping, with the correct mako solution, that I would be able to see how Jenova had spliced the specimen's gene code together. It hadn't worked so far. All the results came back that the specimen was perfectly human. Of course, that was impossible, so I had decided to reformulate the mako into a stronger formula. If the creature had been human, I wouldn't have used that strong of a mix, but seeing what it was, I figured it was worth a try.

It snarled and fought the restraints as I came over, but I was used to that, a few days of its theatrics had inured me of its habits. I did make a quick note to find a gag. I already had a headache and its shrieking was making everything worse. I quickly gave it the injections and hobbled out of the room rubbing my temple and running right into that dolt Turk.

"What?" I wondered if my angel would mind if I made a few quick calls and had the moron assigned to Bone Village…

"_Did you find the cough syrup yet?" A slender, black haired man with whiskey colored eyes looked up at me from where he was kneeling, searching through boxes. "It should be packed in with the toiletries."_

"_No. I opened that box." I was standing in a small alcove kitchen holding packages of groceries. "I didn't see it."_

"_Damn. How about the citron tea (1)?" The man shuffled through another box. "Veld promised he'd send some."_

_I put the groceries down on a counter and stepped over to him, carefully picking my way through the box maze he was in the middle of. "You still have that cold?" I reached out touching his forehead, noting that he felt too hot._

_I got a grumpy look in response._

"_I found it. Go sit down. I'll take care of this," I waved my hand at the boxes, "and make you some tea."_

_He stood and ran his fingers down my cheek. "I'd kiss you, but I don't think you'd appreciate it."_

"_I'll take a rain check." I went back to the alcove feeling guilty that I had been so busy working that I hadn't noticed that…_

"Hey, you okay there?" The idiot Turk was looking at me doubtfully. Probably wondering if I was going to pass out, thereby letting him have some free time trying to weasel himself into my angel's affections. What he was doing down in the lab area in the first place was suspicious.

"I'm fine." I stepped away feeling dizzy again. "Just a headache."

He grunted and went back to doing whatever loutish thing he had been doing before. Since he was headed away from the labs, I ignored him and went back inside. The specimen had quieted down for which I and my head were thankful. I went over and set up the tray for collecting tissue samples. With any luck, the specimen would be quiet for the rest of the proceedings. I wished I could use something to render the creature unconscious, but the drugs or spells might interfere with the results. Seeing that it was basically a new life form, I couldn't predict what effect even the most simple medicine or energy source would have on it. Even a beginning science student knew that appearances don't mean equivalency, so I couldn't trust that its appearance meant that it would chemically react in the same manner a normal human would.

It shrieked and thrashed a bit more as I took the samples, which made my head ache even more. While it was a marvel, I really was starting to hope that it would just go away. Right then I didn't care if it died or if it ran away to live in a cave in the mountains. I just wanted it gone. I contemplated "accidentally" killing it. I was sure that if I "accidentally" made a mako mixture with a bit less purified mako and a bit more raw mako, the thing would die rather quickly.

"Sweetheart, maybe you should go rest." My angel came back and gently ran her hand soothingly across my back. "I'll get James to deal with him." She nodded to the creature that was gnashing its teeth at us.

"No. Just leave it. I've got a few more tests to run." I didn't tell her that I would rather snuggle a toxic frog than have that Turk anywhere near her.

"You work too hard." She cuddled close to me looking up with her soft, beautiful eyes. "You should stop and take care of yourself."

"I'm fine." I gave her a hug then quickly went and prepared the samples for examination. "I'm nearly done here."

"Okay. I have a few more results from the mako tests on Jenova." She leaned against some of the equipment, tipping her head as she watched me. "I wonder if we could be going in the wrong direction."

"Hmmm?" I quirked an eyebrow at her while preparing the sample to be placed on slides. I hoped that while talking to the president Gast would request some assistants and perhaps, in my wildest fantasies, new, or at least more modern, equipment. "What do you mean?"

"What if the mako we're using is too pure?" She tapped her finger against her bottom lip. "Dr. Valentine was doing some research on tainted and impure mako. Some of his findings were quite impressive."

"Valentine?" The name seemed to echo around in my head a few seconds.

"Yes, he was my mentor during my dissertation." She looked nostalgic. "Such a brilliant man."

Seeing that Dr. Valentine was also a dead man, I managed to quell a small stab of jealousy. "We don't seem to be having any results with the purified forms." I waved my hand to where the specimen was now trying to gnaw its way to freedom by chewing on its own shoulder. "We could give that a try."

She gave me a luminous smile. "I'll finish here then start digging up the records. Why don't you go take a nap."

I set the slides down. "We have so much to do…"

She shook her head at me fondly. "You are just too sweet." She grinned playfully at me then started shooing me out of the lab. "I'll deal with this, you go rest." She nudged me down the hall and up the stairs to the bedrooms. "I'll be right back with some medicine to help that headache of yours. You go lay down."

I nodded dumbly then hobbled my way back towards our room. The mansion was quiet around me, with only the soft tap of rain hitting the windows. My pretty morning had degenerated into a storm, casting me and the house in gloom. Outside, the town of Nibelheim was quiet under the lowering clouds.

* * *

Thank you for all your reviews and your support!

Notes:

(1) Citron tea is used in Korea as a cure for a cold. It is basically citron sliced up into honey and mixed. You can buy it in large jars, and to get tea you spoon some of it into a cup and add boiling water. I used to mix it with ginger tea, which comes in powdered form, and loved drinking it in the morning.


	14. Turks

Sorry, sorry. My bad. I made a terrible mistake, but now the chapter is fixed.

Now a Monster

Chapter 14: Turks

* * *

**Rufus**

He was doing it again. Not that Rufus was going to say something about it. He'd learned better, so he gave his Turk room to inscrutably jitter in peace.

"You need to meet with Reeve at four about transportation of more refugees to the north." Tseng was burying himself in work and almost incidentally burying Rufus as well in his frenzy of organization. "Shall I reschedule the seawater reclamation department meeting?"

Rufus was sure that the seawater would be reclaimed fine without him. The project had been on-going for the last five years and neither demons, inscrutable Turks, nor tightly scheduled executives were going to sidetrack the departmental deadlines. He also felt that the teleconference with Reeve at four was probably already canceled. The WRO executive was feeling stressed because of Valentine's disappearance, and his babysitters were firmly sitting on him. What he expected at four was Highwind grumbling about moody, ex-Turks and missing scientists, which would result in his four equally moody Turks to become moody, wildly overworked Turks.

He'd like to point out to Avalanche that technically Shinra had classified them as a terrorist organization and giving aid to a group of people that used to randomly blow up mako reactors resulting in massive loss of life was really asking for a lot. He also would have liked to point out, while he was at it, that Avalanche presently had more manpower than his Turks. But that wouldn't happen of course, because Shinra now had a new, shinny-bright, helpful face and telling the heroes of the Planet they were still a bunch of murdering thugs was incredibly bad press.

"The financial department is also requesting a meeting today about the sharp drop in revenue." Tseng continued being fixated on his schedule.

"Tell the seawater people they are doing an excellent job. I'll meet with the head of the department tomorrow. Send them my regrets for missing out on their meeting." Rufus sighed leaning back into his chair, letting his tired body relax into the expensive leather. "I'll need the latest estimates of the group of refugees that is set to go. I would also like the estimates on the number of people who have already left Junon by themselves.

"Of course, sir." His Turk jotted a few notes, while sitting stiffly across the desk from him.

There had been a time when Tseng would have pulled his chair over next to Rufus's, and they would have been nearly knocking elbows as Tseng reached for a file, or Rufus leaned close to peek at the schedule. Coffee would have been perched on the edge of the desk along with pastries, small mochi cookies, and a plate of finger sandwiches. Rufus missed that. Meetings with Tseng sitting in cold, aloof perfection as he overscheduled them both into a nervous breakdown had become the norm. Rufus wondered what Tseng would do if he ordered him to sit next to him.

Rufus bit the inside of his lip to smother that order. It was only a matter of time until he became desperate enough, lonely enough to give it, and once it was given then simple happiness he had gotten from those friendly meetings would be destroyed. Tseng would just sit cold and stiff next to him, making the whole thing infinitely worse. _Let it go. What was her name…Jing?...Ling?...whatever…I'll go see her._ It wasn't what he wanted, but whatever-her name was would touch him and for a short period of time, he could lie to himself that he was actually worth touching. He took a soft, deep breath and released it calming himself back into serene, amused indifference.

"I'll meet with financial at three. I don't expect anything will surprise me there. It's hard to be making a profit with most of your client base living in emergency shelters." Rufus looked out the floor to ceiling window that made up one wall of his office. It wasn't a spectacular view. His father had designed the building for showing off his wealth to any poor schmucks that had the misfortune to have a personal meeting with him, thus, his view was of the city sprawled out like a crowded rat maze of cheap buildings, tacky neon lights, smog, and asphalt. Still, it was becoming more appealing than watching Tseng.

"I'll let them know."

"You may go." Rufus had had enough. "Have Reno escort me for the rest of the day. I want you to start running down leads to where Valentine might have run off to. I'm sure I'll be asked for that later."

"Of course." Tseng, still being inscrutable, straitened his papers, stood, and gave Rufus a brief salute. "I'll see you before the meeting at four then."

Rufus nodded, not turning from the window until the door shut behind Tseng. His desk, usually piled under massive drifts of paperwork had become, thanks to Tseng's new schedule, tidy and barren. He could poke at his computer, but even that had been regimented into order and while it might be a bit enlivening to see if he had gotten any important e-mail, it would just mean he'd have less to do later. Nights were the worst and having an excuse to stay late was preferable to the alternative.

_Well, then there was…_ _Jing…I'll go see her._ Rufus stood, sweeping his jacket up as he headed out the office door, just in time to see Reno come out of the elevator.

"Hey, boss, where you going? Don't you have a meeting in…" Reno slumped his way over to him, eyeing Rufus's secretaries.

"Yes, in two hours. I want some air." _I want some company that will treat me like I'm a human being._ Rufus stepped to the elevator and hit the button, hardly noticing as the doors slipped quietly open. He kept his face blankly urbane as he stepped inside, Reno at his side.

Jing, he was relatively sure that had been her name, lived only a short distance away from the main street in a small apartment over a materia store. He'd noticed her walking down the street a few weeks ago when he'd been desperately looking out the window, fantasizing about clawing his way through the car door and freedom, as Tseng droned on about sewage reclamation. He'd had Elena track her down. It had only taken a few days of smiles and flaunting his position, wealth, and connections to gain access to her bed. Her long black hair; high cheekbones; heart shaped face; and slanting, dark chocolate eyes had been his biggest draw and as she opened the door, he appreciated them again.

Reno slumped at his side as he greeted her. The Turk glanced at the apartment then when Rufus stepped inside to pull Jing into his arms, slipped in and quickly looked the place over. When the young CEO playfully tugged her into the bedroom, Reno flopped on the couch and flicked on the television digging out his phone.

"Rude, my man, we're over at the bed bunny's. Anything happening?" Reno flicked through channels, trying not to hear the noises coming from the bedroom. There was just something deeply wrong about listening to your boss fucking.

"Your desk just became well organized." Rude's voice echoed oddly.

"Where the fuck are you?" Reno yawned, flipping past sitcoms and reality TV shows.

"Bathroom." Rude's voice was hushed.

"That bad?" Reno paused at an old comedy then flicked past.

"He organized your paperclips by size, color, and imprint pattern."

"Oh." Reno settled on a rerun of a monster truck rally. It was flashy and most importantly noisy.

"He got me yesterday."

"Something could happen to his office again." Reno lay down on the couch and tucked a cute cat pillow behind his head. "It'd take him days to reorganize everything."

"I'll get to work on it tonight." Rude's voice was nearly drowned out by someone rattling a door in the background.

Reno grunted a response and hung up. He nearly dozed as trucks with flames on them crushed small cars and raced away in plumes of smoke. When Rufus finally reappeared smoothing his hair down as the bunny bounced next to him begging for promises of romance and dinner, Reno rolled off the couch and went back to slouching at his employer's side.

Rufus promised a few treats and snatched a few kisses before he went back to his real life. Reeve, or more accurately Cid Highwind, would be calling for a video conference soon, so as nice as it had been to wrap himself in Jing's warmth, he was still himself, and he still had the schedule Tseng had so thoughtfully created for him.

"Come see me tonight, Rufus. I miss you when you're not here." Jing stood in the door watching him leave.

If he could, he would have stayed with her. Wouldn't that have been better than his present life? So what if she was chosen for her resemblance to someone else? She was warm. She smiled at him as if he actually counted for something besides a paycheck or an obligation. She looked him in the eye and didn't shift her gaze differentially away and she called him by name. She might not have been what he wanted, but he wasn't going to be picky. He'd take what he could get.

"Tonight. Promise. Wear that black dress and I'll take you someplace special." He gave her a final wave before Reno escorted him down the narrow stairs and out to the waiting car.

"Don't you have a meeting with the Northern Subduction Zone Committee, sir?" Reno held open the car door and waited until Rufus settled himself before closing it.

"Plate tectonics has never fascinated me." Rufus yawned, his body still working through its post-sex legarthy. "I'm sure the continents will manage to subduct without my input."

Reno nodded and smoothly maneuvered the car into traffic. "Sure, boss."

Rufus looked at the street rushing past. People were rushing through the late afternoon traffic, hoping to get home. They were going back to families, lovers, perhaps a cranky, old dog that would half heartedly woof at them. They'd sit down to their respective dinners, get mauled by small children, make love to their partners, worry about bills, perhaps take a shower and fall into bed to read until they fell asleep. The next morning they'd wake up, read the paper, get kisses goodbye, and head off to work.

"Ha." He muttered, feeling envious. "What a life."

"Sir?"

"Nothing. Just contemplating humanity, or what's passing as humanity these days." He waved one hand at the passing crowd of motorists. It was the expected answer. He'd learned that early. Keep opinions and thoughts to yourself and give people what they expect to hear. People wanted him to be Rufus Shinra, the elegant bastard who ruthlessly controlled the huge conglomerate of Shinra Power and Electric; Rufus, the self-centered brat who never bled, never cried, and never felt fear, pity, compassion, or remorse. He certainly didn't need anything. After all, he just had to reach out and take what he wanted. To be anything else, even for a moment…

Well, look where that had gotten him.

"Yes, sir."

**James**

There was something going on. He just couldn't get a handle on it yet. First, there had been the accident. Then there had been the recovery from the accident. After that, his angel…no…Lucrecia had mentioned wanting Hojo, so he had gone to the Forgotten City and…

_So you went and played fetch. Good dog! Have a bone…_

It was the trees. That was what got him, those trees whispering in his head asking him what he was doing, asking him what was going on with some guy named Vincent, asking him why he had Hojo. They hadn't been threatening. They hadn't even seemed dangerous. They actually made him feel better being with them. The world looked clearer, steadier. The aches and pains he'd been trying so hard to ignore washed out of his muscles and bones.

_Those trees know what they're doing. Wood for brains but…_

When he'd gotten back with Hojo, things had started getting odd. It was like someone was standing next to him commenting on what was happening. While one part was smiling at his angel, the other part that he wasn't entirely sure was him was watching her carefully, seeing the way her eyes calculated, noting the small inconsistencies between what she said and what she did. She said she loved him, but then she started calling Hojo husband and the poor ass had gone from unconscious to screamingly hysterical to sedate.

_Or is the word sedated…_

He shook his head, watching as his angel…Lucrecia and Hojo sat in front of the massive fireplace cuddling. His place had certainly changed. While Hojo had undergone his transformation into a doting husband, he'd been nearly dismissed from his ang…Lucreica's thoughts. He hung around her like a starving puppy waiting for a tidbit of attention. It made him disgusted when she did smile at him or give him a kind word, and he'd feel so pathetically grateful.

_Might as well grow a tail to wag…_

He turned and walked away, heading down into the labs. Hojo had ordered him out, and Lucrecia had, sighing and not quite smothering a small, pleased smile, asked him to hand over his pass key, which he did feeling a twinge of self-loathing happiness that he pleased her. But that didn't mean he couldn't use other keys. She never said a word about the other keys. His fingers just seemed to know where things were hidden, pass key here, a code there, and all the security measures in this wreck of a building seemed to unlock themselves at his whim.

_It's almost as if you've been here before…_

_Shut the fuck up._

Since they were being all lovey upstairs, he decided he wanted a closer look at his fellow survivors. He was getting curious about that accident. It had to be an odd accident to render him with amnesia and another man without the use of his mind. It was even odder to hear what she now said. Instead of an accident, there was something about Jenova. What was a Jenova? There had been no mention of a Jenova before, had there? And if there had been, why had the black man changed from a tragic victim of an accident into being a lab specimen to be experimented on and disected? There was also the blond in the mako tube. Suddenly instead of being an unknown woman, she'd been renamed Jenova. She'd definitely not been Jenova before, so why was she now? She certainly hadn't gotten out of her mako tube and told anyone. So why the changes? And if things had changed what was the truth?

_You already know the truth… why deny it?_

He opened the lab door. The black man was in his cage unconscious. The blond was floating peacefully in her tank. The lab hummed softly around him.

_You know…you were in that tank…_

He frowned walking forward closing the door behind him. He went and looked over the man in the cage first. Hojo, if that was even his real name…

_It is._

…had really cut into the man this time. He'd heard his an…Lucrecia ask for bone marrow samples over breakfast and the man had slavishly done as he'd been asked. The black man didn't look like he'd be with them much longer and James was having trouble finding any sympathy for his imminent passing. The man would be better off dead.

_Maybe you should kill him. It wouldn't be the first time you did something like that._

James quickly turned away and headed for the mako tube. The blond seemed to be fine. She seemed just slightly past being in her teens with short blond hair and a slender, lithe body. And nowhere on her was even a mark that she'd been in an accident. If they truly had been nearly killed, wouldn't there have been scars? Marks? Wounds? Something?

His body had traces of scars that he had assumed had come from the accident. Deep enough wounds, even with potions or materia would leave scars, so he had accepted them as proof.

_Odd how that they all looked so old…_

Proof that his ang…Lucrecia had indeed saved them from a terrible accident. Now he was starting to have his doubts and his ever present commentator shared them.

_Nice of you to notice._

_Fuck off._

He glanced back towards the door checking to see if the lovebirds had decided to grace him with their presence. Considering that Lucrecia…

_Keep practicing. You're improving._

…seemed to enjoy having sex at least once or twice a night, he guessed the poor sap was off doing his husbandly duties and he would have free run of the lab for the evening. He'd felt jealous the first time he'd realized that Hojo was screwing his angel.

_Backsliding there._

_Shut up._

But after…

_Your little general didn't feel like saluting…_

…he hadn't felt quite as jealous as he thought he would. He felt relieved.

_Say thank you._

He was even feeling repelled.

_When I destroy someone's sex life, I do it well._

He went over to the files that Lucrecia had left on the side of her desk by the blond. He'd never looked at them before, she'd shuffled them away one time when he had still adored her, and told him she didn't want him to mess up her organizational system. Back then, he'd smiled, thought he'd do anything to make her happy, and hadn't so much as glanced at them again. Now was a different story.

Wallace, B? Who was Wallace, B.? He flipped open the file and found a picture of the black man. Under it, there was all the information he'd been told she had lacked: his name, Barret Wallace; born in Corel; widowed; adopted daughter, Marlene… He closed the file and went to the next. E? Who had a name of one letter? He flipped it open and saw a young blond woman with serious eyes and a familiar face.

_Recognize her?_

He didn't look farther. If she had files on them…

_Bingo. Congratulations and welcome to the world of being a lab rat._

He set the two files exactly back where he found them and went to the file cabinet. Valentine, S., Valentine, V., H, V? There were more one letter people? What, were people running out of names to give their kids?

_Try the V. You'll like the V._

Just to be stubborn, he picked up the H. It was a very thick file. He took another glance at the door then sat down in the desk chair.

_Don't worry. I'll let you know if anyone comes down here._

_Thanks._

**Tseng**

He was having a horrible case of déjà vu.

"He's in Junon, Costa del Sol, and Wutai?" Tseng rubbed the small red diamond tattoo on his forehead. "You're sure?"

Admittedly, his contacts were scarce on the ground since Lucrecia and her demon hordes showed up, but he still had some scattered here and there, laughing as they served coffee, grumbling along with their fellow WRO soldiers, or strolling along streets smiling pleasantly at their neighbors.

"Yes, sir." The voice on the other end mumbled, sounding embarrassed.

"Very well." He hung up quickly, cursing Valentine silently. Next time he found the man, he was going to put a global tracker on him. Maybe imbed it in his thick skull.

He quickly made a few notes in the ever growing file with Valentine's name on it, slapped it shut, and stood up. He still had to put in an appearance at the seawater reclamation committee meeting to show that Rufus, who privately couldn't be bothered, still cared about the drinking water of the city of Junon. Reeve had canceled the video-conference, instead leaving the expected request for the Turks to please try to find Valentine and Hojo. All that was left was left on Rufus's schedule was the financial committee, which Reno said Rufus was dutifully attending.

Tseng consulted his new PDA which he'd decided he needed after realizing that his old electronic schedule was inadequate. The new one, bright, shiny, and ultra-sleek, had ten times the memory, a processor that was faster, an intuitive schedule option, and over two weeks of battery life between recharges. He had spent all of the night before programming it, downloading the huge database of contacts he had and the schedule, and even adding some soothing music to calm his nerves.

He stepped out of his office and walked down the short hall to the stairs leading to the upper floor conference rooms. Rufus, in an effort to appear concerned over the public's discomfort, had instituted a energy saving policy. No elevators were to be used unless it was an emergency with his office being the only exception for the simple reason the stairwells to the presidential suite were too much of a security hazard. The elevator limited the amount of people and the routes of access of all people approaching Rufus's office. There had already been a few tries as refugees took their frustrations out on any visible targets such as public facilities, the original inhabitants of Junon who had the nerve to live in their own homes, restaurateurs who didn't give away free food, and of course Rufus.

Starting up the stairs and pulling out his PHS he called Rude.

"Sir?" His voice sounded hesitant.

"I need you to contact our people who are scouting Costa del Sol and our contacts in Wutai. They need to keep an eye open for Valentine and Hojo. They've gone missing." He pushed open the door to the stairwell, wincing at the loud screech it made. "Also, we need to find any laboratories that Dr. Cresent might decide to use in Wutai or Junon." He paused as Palmer huffed down the stairs past him, nearly having to plaster himself against the wall to let the man past. "Make a secondary list of other sites that she could use for research into Jenova, genetics, or demonology."

"Yes, sir." As usual, he was brief, no questions, no commentary.

"Also contact our people here. I want to hear any gossip, sightings, or odd happenings involving Valentine, Hojo, or odd shipments of scientific research equipment or components." He pushed open the door to the upper floor. "Report as soon as you can, tomorrow noon at the latest."

"Yes, sir."

Tseng grinned. _That should keep him out of trouble._ And Rufus had balked at the expense of bugging the other Turk's phones.

He opened the door to the conference room and entered. The scientists and engineers all nodded pleasantly to him, seeming unsurprised by Rufus's lack of appearance. He sat down out of the way and idly listened to the group chatter on about tides, saline, evaporation rates, and of course funding, the only reason Rufus had been invited.

Rufus's slacking was starting to become a problem, as were his trips to Jing. While the woman had passed the numerous security screenings, Tseng felt there was something off about her. She was from an impeccable third generation Junon family with only distant ties to some farmers in southern Wutai. She was educated, with a degree from the local university that she never used. Her previous relationships were with nice, dull, mostly college-age boys who hadn't a clue there was a world beyond a sports arena. She had a nice, if slightly risqué job as a clerk in an upscale adult lingerie store that sold adult toys as a side line. Her friends were all dully normal. There was nothing to make Tseng suspicious, only a lingering feeling of deep repulsion.

A stack of folders was handed to him by the man next to him at the table. He took one and passed the rest to the next person as the presenter started droning about geological stability for the anchorages. He flipped his open and tried to look interested in sedimentary layers.

His PHS vibrated. He flipped it open and glanced at the number: Reno. Nodding to the people around him, he stood up and quietly left the room.

"Boss, we've got a problem." Reno was out of breath, panting heavily into the phone.

"Report." Tseng turned and headed back to his office his pace quickening as Reno's silence stretched out. The door to the stairwell was tossed open and the steps flew past his feet. The door to his level was brushed past as Reno started talking again, telling him things he already feared he was going to hear.

"Rufus is gone. I left him at the meeting, sat outside the door, and when I checked ten minutes later, he wasn't in the room." He could hear the sound of Reno's feet running for a second, a creak of a door, then the red head was back. "The others said he left. Wanna tell me how the fuck he got out of a room with one door that I was sitting next to in ten minutes? Windows sealed. No other doors."

"What did the people say?" Tseng was at his office. "They had to see him leave."

"They said he walked out the door. Boss, he didn't. I was watching that door and it never open…shit. His car's gone."

"Okay. We've got a tracker in the car." Tseng sat down at his computer and started pulling up the records. "We'll discuss his new found skills in escaping rooms later."

"Not going to work, boss." Reno told him just as the program indicated that Rufus's car was still in the garage. "The tracker is right here."


	15. The Burden

Now a Monster

Chapter 15: The Burden

* * *

"No." I couldn't believe this.

"I could help. I knew where to find you." The new irritation in my life smirked at me.

I couldn't deny that. He had found me. I had set false leads, misleading information, and decoys. Tseng and Avalanche would be chasing my shadow for weeks, and he had found me easily. If I wasn't so busy wondering where I could dispose of his corpse, I'd be impressed.

"Go home."

"You need me." My irritation stood leaning casually against a wall glancing around, pretending to be at ease.

"Only if I had a death wish. I don't." I wondered if Tseng would really object if I mailed him my newest problem. I'd even spend a few extra gil for a collar and leash. Tseng might appreciate the gesture.

"I know the labs. I know the passkeys." My irritation was now scanning the street where a group of Reeve's spiffy over-achievers were stomping along with all the tact of a heard of elfadunks.

"No."

Rufus Shinra. Unlike my Avalanche counter-parts, I had no true problem with Shinra. Old man Shinra had been an okay boss. There had even been times that I'd liked the man. The issue about the mako was a bit disturbing, but knowing the old man, he had probably only had known the simplest basics about it, if that. He had hired scientists to do that thinking for him. His specialty had been public relations, financial back room deals, and politics. I did suspect, especially after reading my chick's diary, that those drugs had an unexpected long term effect. The old boss I knew would have laughed himself hysterical over some myth about a Promised Land then he would have gone off to fuck a few whores and probably spend the night at a dog fight in the slums. His Promised Land had a plush backside and cost about a hundred gil a night. But I did have problems with the old man's brat tagging along as I tried to go rescue my lost hatchling.

"You need me." He repeated, his familiar smug expression on his face.

I wondered what he needed. Rufus Shinra had the world in his hand, at least what was left of it. He had his own organization of people to do his bidding. He should be sitting safely in his multi-story office building looking down on the peons. If he felt that I needed to know the passkeys, he could have sent one of the Turks. Instead, he was showing every sign of hiding from his Turks and he was dressed as one of the peons in a scruffy pair of jeans and a slightly dirty tee-shirt. On his feet, instead of the polished shoes he normally wore, he had an old pair of hiking shoes. Even the jacket he had tied around his waist was old and worn.

Interesting.

"Why?" I prodded. I was waiting for the WRO to leave this area, so I could spend a bit of time indulging my curiosity about my unexpected helper.

"I want to see her taken down." Rufus's eyes seemed direct enough, but that was just the problem, they were a bit too direct. He was hiding something. "Tseng has things under control in Junon."

Was that a small flicker of nerves, making his eyes shift a tiny fraction then hold completely steady?

"Instead of sitting idly, I chose to come assist you." He had learned his father's trick of evasion.

I pondered my newest problem as the WRO troops scouted outside of our hideout. We were in the remains of an old sea-side shack on Costa del Sol's beach. By the smell, it had probably been a mini-bar that catered to the beach crowd. It had been cleared out though, leaving only a small wooden table, a couple of chintzy vinyl table clothes, and the strong smell of rum and pineapple. I doubted the troops would check in here. They had been quite diligent in their not checking. The clean-up crews had already taken care of the unpleasantness of dead, rotting corpses, and the lush rains had washed away the rest of the evidence that had been on the streets. As long as they remained outside, they could laugh, chat, and tell good natured jokes as they strolled through the sunshine.

Rufus glanced over at the door. He was good. I could tell he was contemplating blackmailing me by threatening to inform WRO of my presence, but he was also balancing his own need to not be found. He eyed me a moment then with only a small, downward twitch of his lip, looked away. He'd just decided not to try it, swayed, no doubt, by the knowledge that I was probably aware of just how much he didn't want to be exposed. I might not know what brought him to me, but I could guess that it was something that had not been discussed with his Turk Leader.

The soldiers moved off, still chattering happily.

He wasn't stupid and that's probably why I turned away slipping to the other side of the shack. "Just stay out of the way."

He kept his mouth shut and followed as I pried open a small door and after looking carefully around, slid out into the street. WRO's troops were already scuffing around a corner heading towards the docks. I went in the opposite direction, towards the town gates.

"How did you get here?" I glanced over at the condo that Avalanche had bought back during the Meteor Crisis. There was gear there that I could use. If I was going to head west, I would need more than the small bundle of bullets and materia that I had snatched up as I left home, leaving Avalanche discussing such small trivialities as what information my chick was giving to Lucrecia and if they could find and silence him before he babbled too much.

I couldn't say that my chick would never help her. He was too broken, too fragile to stand up to her tricks for long. She had broken me with ease. What hope did my poor hatchling have? While I had, chaffed and listened to the counsel of my friends, she'd had time to sink her poisonous fangs into Hojo. By now, she would have gotten what information she wanted from him. I only hoped that she hadn't discarded him. My fear and my hope was that his diary was true. She needed him to be host to Omega. It would take her time to change his physiology enough to transfer the demon. Of course, Hojo hadn't reacted well to the first set of experiments, so she might be slowed down a bit. But that would mean that he was weakening. I needed to find him and I needed to find him quickly.

"Where are we heading first?" Rufus moved silently up the stairs behind me.

"Gongaga then to Cosmo Canyon." I barely paused at the door, twisting the knob and breaking the lock. I'd buy a new one later. "Bugenhagen had laboratories there she might use."

"You think she's in Nibelhiem?" He kept his voice low as we entered.

"Possibly."

"I took that lab apart. There's nothing there she could use." Rufus went over to the kitchen and started digging through the cabinets. "I had it stripped. I even had them pull the walls and floor to check for any hidden goodies."

I hadn't thought of that. I didn't think much about the old mansion ordinarily and tried to avoid it, even in passing references. The memories that I associated with that place all had to do with death, pain, and torture. Since places themselves rarely are a threat, I had given myself permission to leave it strictly alone. However, if what Rufus said was true, that left Cosmo Canyon and the destroyed mako reactor at Gongaga as possible places for her experiments. It also left…

"Did you strip the Nibelheim reactor?" I started searching through the accumulated beach toys that Yuffie had stuffed into the weapons closet.

Rufus nodded. "Took months."

I finally found the cache of potions, spells, bangles, and materia Cloud had stashed. Someplace in that confused mind, a fully functioning Soldier First Class lurked, and that part liked having ammo close by. He had even stocked bullets for me and Barret. Somehow, I doubted Barret would live to use them. If Lucrecia hadn't killed the fool, I still had a score to settle.

Rufus finished piling packable food on the counter and went to check the bedrooms for anything useful. I wondered what he'd think of Cid's porn stash and Yuffie's _Beefcake Magazine_ hoard that she kept here, a continent away from her father's eyes.

I headed down to the cellar. I was certain that some camping gear had been stored down there.

"What's this?" Rufus stepped out of Tifa's room holding a picture and not bothering to hide a delighted smirk.

"A picture of Cloud posing naked on the bar at Seventh Heaven." I managed to keep my voice flat and my face expressionless. "Keep it. It might come in handy."

Cloud owed me. His endless dithering about the feasibility of sending search parties out to scout for Hojo had cost me precious time. Letting Rufus keep a bit of harmless photographic art seemed a small price for his waffling. In the spirit of vengeance, I should have probably pointed out that most of Cid's horde was gay porn, and maybe Rufus might want to ask Cid about it. Cid's endless meandering about logistics, transportation issues, and budgeting had delayed me even more than Cloud's rambling. Reeve's togetherness speeches had also earned him vengeance points, but he kept his rooms here spotless. I'd have to think of something special to repay him for his sudden burst of bonhomie. Rufus tucked the picture into a pocket and went back upstairs to find more useful things.

I had to pry open a few crates, but I found the gear neatly packed and serviceable. I quickly selected a tent, sleeping bags, and some other gear we'd need. Materia was handy for fires, but cooking was still difficult without pans. With Rufus along, I decided that the water purification tabs would also be necessary. Personally, I could probably survive on toxic sludge water, but Rufus would get sick. I didn't feel like nursing him through a bout of dysentery. I also took a few canteens for the desert hike for his sake.

"We should get chocobos." He came down the stairs with an armful of clothes and rain gear.

"We'll have to catch them outside of town." I noticed the edge of his lip twitched up slightly. "Where?"

"I left them outside the gate. They're well trained. They'll wait." He handed me the clothes. "Do we have chocobo packs?"

I nodded. "In Cloud's room. Probably under the bed."

His nose twitched. He probably already experienced Cloud's room and its lack of light, air, or cleanliness. I turned back to checking the camping gear, abandoning him to its dismal stench. If he was going to come along, he was going to face far worse things than Cloud's three month old undies.

By the time I decided he'd suffered enough and went upstairs, he had the chocobo packs spread in the living room. "They look sound."

I helped pack everything, somewhat surprised when he not only helped but seemed to know what he was doing. When we were finished I easily slung everything over my shoulder and we headed back into the streets. The soldiers were nowhere near, so our trip to the city gates was quick and uneventful. I kept an eye on Rufus just the same, judging just how much of a burden he was likely to be.

It was obvious that he'd had a lot of training. I could even spot some of Veld's handiwork in the pattern he scanned streets and how he shifted his weight to silence his footsteps on the old adobe cobblestones. He also had been trained by Tseng. His behavior was definitely not his father's. His father had been a large man with broad, expansive movements. Rufus's minimalist use of expressions, the elegant way he held his head and shoulders, and the neat, delicate movements of his hands were all Tseng's. But the eyes though… almost pure Veld. The constant masks, even the shadowed twist of humor were also Veld's.

Elfie hadn't been Veld's only child, I realized. He might not have physically fathered Rufus, but he'd raised the boy.

"They should be over there." Rufus nodded to a series of small buildings that looked like an old power relay post. "I could only get two golds and a black. You can make do, can't you?"

Sarcasm. Definitely Veld.

I nodded following him around to the back of the buildings. The birds were there, so we quickly cinched the packs on the black and headed away from the coast. Rufus mercifully shut his mouth and concentrated on keeping the mountain chocobo trotting along next to us with its burden. It was a young bird and excitable, wanting to jump and fidget at the slightest disruption to its world view, such as small bushes, birds, passing monsters, and unexpected breezes.

Few monsters cared to look in our direction. What few we did see seemed more interested in creeping out of sight quickly than in attacking. Only a ragged, desperate, out of place Nibel wolf took a dislike to our presence. It was more of a mercy than anything else to put a bullet through its skull.

By nightfall, we were on the outskirts of Gongaga. The ruins of the mako plant loomed in shadowy spikes in the distance.

"I'd rather not be turned into a frog while I slept." Rufus shook his head at the forest. "Let's camp here."

It wasn't a bad spot, but I had been hoping to get into the reactor tonight. "The forest would provide cover."

"And frogs." Rufus seemed to have an aversion to them.

I could have suggested the village, but in all the reports I had overheard from Cid and Reeve, never once had I heard anything about a clean-up crew being sent to Gongaga. For all I knew, all those people I had killed were still there waiting for someone to come and save them. I didn't want a reunion with Rufus as a witness.

Rufus. He'd kept up all day without even a hint of a complaint. For someone who rarely ever left his luxuries, he was doing surprisingly well. The problem was he was still Veld's and Tseng's child. The same stubborn will that had kept Tseng on his feet despite a fatal wound kept Rufus on his feet now. The obsession with trivialities was Veld dancing away from a subject he didn't want to discuss.

I wished Veld had been there so I could tease him about having Tseng's love child. It would have been priceless to see the look on his face. He would have blustered and snarled, maybe even called my own lineage into question with a few hints about hedgehog pies or jumpings. Then, he would have grumbled and muttered, probably with commentary about my deteriorating mental health. When he finally realized how close I was to the truth, he'd playfully hand out cigars with little blue bands on them.

"Fine." I swung down. "Stay here and start unpacking." I caught the mountain chocobo's halter and quickly unfastened the pack, setting it on the ground where Rufus could get to it. "I want to scout the area."

He stiffly got down and pretended not to hobble. "I'll have to tether the birds. The black might spook."

His voice wasn't the pleasant, smooth, cultured voice of Shinra's president. The crisp pronunciation was missing, along with the upper crust tint of condescension. He now sounded like a young recruit that had just been run off his feet by his instructor, blurred and a bit too breathy.

"Fine. I'll be back in twenty minutes." I left, expecting to find him asleep with his head on a chocobo saddle when I returned. In that, I forgot he was also trained by Reno to be perverse. I learned better when I got back from looking at scrub brush and checking to make sure no roving monsters were in the area to find camp neatly set up, a quick dinner sitting by the fire keeping warm, and a drowsy CEO trying to mix instant coffee in a tin cup.

"Go to sleep." I sat down and picked up my meal. "The area is clear and I can take watch."

"Wake me mid-way then." He didn't argue and handed the cup over to me. "I'll do second watch."

I kept my response to myself and watched him drag himself into his sleeping bag. I was far from tired. Before Lucrecia's insanity or my chick's desperate attempts to save me, I had been trained to keep awake, alert, and combat ready with little sleep. With the alterations, I could go a long time before needing to rest. It wouldn't be pleasant, and my mental stability would become uneven, but those effects were days away. I could indulge a tired kid one night's rest.

I sat, sipped the poorly made coffee, and watched the night pass. In the morning, I had fun trying to decide where Rufus had inherited his sunny morning disposition. His father had been an early riser. No matter how late he had been out the night before, he was always bright and energetic in the mornings. Veld had been a mellow morning person, quietly sipping his coffee, reading the local paper, and doing his paperwork with a serene peace that evaporated by mid-morning into a frenetic efficiency.

"Why didn't you wake me?" He was slumped over his cup of coffee mumbling half hearted curses and looking as far from the immaculate Rufus Shinra as he could get with is hair rumpled into peaks and untidy snarls and his face prickly with stubble.

"Wasn't tired." I considered if Rude was the one to inspire this. It could explain the sunglasses and the shaved head.

He made a few swipes at his hair, trying to calm it into place. He also scrubbed at his face with the sleeve of his jacket causing little bits of dirt and plants that had been on his sleeve to adhere to his stubble. "Is there a stream nearby?"

I shook my head. "Closest is near the mako plant."

He grimaced and eyed his coffee. I wondered if he would try styling his hair with his drink. The smell would definitely be a change from his usual overpriced cologne. He refrained however and ran his fingers through his hair a few more times.

"Now I understand the hair." He eyed me narrowly. "I wondered why it always looked like a rat nest."

I could guess the blank silence that I met that remark with didn't fit into his world view since he scowled and drank his coffee in a black humor. I made a mental note of it and stood up. "I'll saddle the chocobos. Pack."

He took the order with an elegantly arched eyebrow, but I didn't bother staying to see if he was going to do it. Entertaining as he was, I had work to do and if he wanted to relapse into being a spoiled brat, he'd do it alone. Very alone. But I wasn't surprised when I came back to find everything neatly packed. Veld always knew when to shut up and do what was necessary. I'm glad he taught the kid.

The reactor at Gongaga was an untouched pile of rubble. The shattered beams and pipes poked lonely fingers into the forest's twilight shade as we circled around it looking for any sign of her using it. It was untouched. Even the normal monsters that lurked in the ruins had abandoned it.

"Valentine." Rufus, still scruffy looking, though he had gotten his hair to calm down into only slightly untidy ruffles, dusted his hands off on his equally scruffy jeans and peered around. "Why did you wait?"

I shoved aside a large plate of metal to see if I could get a look down into the reactor core, but was only met with the sight of more rubble. The reactor had been completely decimated. It probably exploded much like the ones Barret and Avalanche had blown up, from the inside out. The farther into the reactor one dug, the more severe the damage would become.

"It took you weeks to search for Hojo. Why didn't you just leave when he first disappeared." Rufus looked off towards the town. "I would have thought you'd be after him immediately."

"I was." I gave up the search. This reactor was useless. "When I realized that whoever took him used a helicopter to leave the area, I decided I needed assistance. This search would have been far easier, and far shorter if Avalanche had helped. Also when we finally locate Hojo, extracting him from a demon army is going to be difficult without getting into a confrontation. Trained fighters would have been beneficial."

He nodded and didn't ask any more questions. I was sure he was thinking them though, but he could probably guess the answers. I had, once again been a fool. Years of working with Avalanche had softened me, dulling my reactions. I should have been able to assess the situation, realized that Avalanche would be more of a danger to Hojo than an assistance, made the necessary arrangements, and been after the kidnappers in less than an hour. Instead, I had dallied, strung on by the possibility of Avalanche splitting into groups and searching for my chick. I wasn't so proud that I wouldn't accept help, and a search that promised to last months as I hunted through laboratories and mako plants, could have been shortened into a few weeks. Only when I realized that yes, they would split into groups, but only to kill my hatchling under the guise of "only doing what was necessary to prevent him from divulging information" did I head out on my own. Though, not after doing a little preventative vandalism to the Highwind and any other transportation they might consider using. Cloud would be furious about missing those bike engines, but it was that or kill them before they became even more of a threat. Davies and the rest of the villagers had helped out by suddenly losing their gold chocobos and the fishermen all had to unexpectedly head off to Junon to have a particularly nasty, wood eating snail scraped off the bottoms of their boats. It would buy me time to find my chick before my friends did.

I glanced over at Rufus. My association with Avalanche was over. They had firmly placed themselves against me by siding against Hojo. I was free of any lingering obligation I may have felt towards them for helping me. Maybe I should go back to being a Turk. It would keep me busy, and while I had somewhat enjoyed working for Reeve, it had only been because of how much that job reminded me of being a Turk.

If Veld had been there, still in charge of the Turks, I would have done it. Jenova's Tits, if Veld had been in charge of the Turks when I had woken up, I would have put a bullet through each of Avalanche's heads, grabbed Aeris, and hauled her back to Shinra. If that had happened, I wonder if things would have changed for the better. Sephiroth probably would never have acquired the black materia and would still be frozen in a mako crystal in the crater. Aeris might still be alive, though probably not happy. Reeve would still be working for Shinra, helping people in his disguise of a robotic cat. And Cid would still be unhappily tinkering on an old rocket that would never reach space. Cloud, Nanaki, Tifa, Barret, and Yuffie would have been dead. Well, maybe not Yuffie. I would have taken her to Shinra too. A royal hostage would have been a fantastic bargaining piece for Shinra's president. Would I have regretted the four deaths then?

Barret. Definitely not. We never really developed more than a strained tolerance for each other. His shooting my fledgling was just the last of a long series of stupid insults, poorly thought out threats, and dimwittedly antagonistic actions that he regularly tossed at me.

Tifa. No. I neither like her nor disliked her. She was an okay person, if you forgot entirely about the thousands of deaths she caused in her quest on revenging her father. Putting the little matter of being a mass murderer and an unrepentant terrorist aside, she was even motherly and kind. I wasn't, as an ex-Truk, in any position to pass moral judgment on her actions, but I wouldn't have minded ridding the world of her. Careless killers that believed they could do whatever they wished for their own self-appointed goals never got much sympathy from me.

Cloud? Maybe. He was, at heart, one of the few good people in this world. His tenure with Avalanche was more of a combination of mental instability, meeting the wrong people during that time, being too trusting, and having to deal with Sephiroth's insanity. I'd killed people for less, but having known him, I might feel badly about shuffling him off to the lifestream.

I would have felt bad about Nanaki. Causing the extinction of an entire race of intelligent being couldn't be lightly shrugged off.

"Your drifting." Rufus sounded grumpy.

I pulled myself back out of my thoughts. "We'll head to Cosmo Canyon."

"How about the town?" He didn't seemed inclined to go. He was looking towards Gongaga with the same expression Hojo had when facing a pile of laundry, doubtful and wondering if it might give him some unidentifiable disease.

"She needs mako. Without mako, the town would be useless." I walked back to where the chocobos stood pulling at the greens growing out of the crevices in the debris. "We'll head for Cosmo."

"There's no mako in Cosmo Canyon." He muttered.

I wondered if he'd be happier if I told him that we'd go scout Fort Condor. "They have it shipped in for study."

I pretended not to hear his soft groan.

Cosmo Canyon was eerie without the soft comings and goings of the people. The wind was all that talked through the settlement. We had arrived around mid-day and had ridden our birds directly up to the main level of the canyon. I doubted that Nanaki would mind the lapse in manners just this once. Mind you, I never could understand what was so polite about making guests hike up a long, steep, crumbly staircase in the middle of desert weather.

"I read the reports." Rufus was looking around frowning. "No one has come back here since, so…" He waved towards the foot of the stairs. "Where are the bodies?"

"Bodies?"

"The demons. This place is nearly sanitized." Rufus looked around suspiciously. "I know Reeve didn't send anyone to clear up this mess, and I certainly didn't. So where are the bodies?"

It was also unlikely to be Lucrecia's base. I hadn't even sensed the Gi that usually lurked down in the bowels of the canyon. Beyond that information, I didn't care too much about demon bodies or demon's probably eating habits.

"Look." He pointed to the cavern that headed back into the bar. "There's a body there, but it's human."

I glanced over. The desert head and dryness had mummified the poor soul that had died there, leaving a baked, desiccated corpse in the shadow of the wall. I wondered if we had gone into Gongaga if we would have found other corpses. Ones that I was responsible for after tearing the life out of them at Lucrecia's bidding.

"Let's go up to the lab." I went into the cavern that headed up to Nanaki's home. There were a few more bodies as we made our way upwards. I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve as we passed. These hadn't had the dry desert sun to bake them, so they rotted as they were. Rufus was staggering in my wake trying to smother his gagging. I wondered if it would make him feel better or worse to know that Veld had gagged for the first five years as a Turk, and only conquered it after a long stint working as a morgue attendant during an investigation about mysterious disappearances of bodies out of the local morgue. He'd had to assist in autopsies for three months on some of Midgar's residents from the slums while I dug through files on where the dearly departed might have wandered off too. Come to find that they weren't so much mysteriously disappeared as hastily shoved into a grave to keep the intake clerk's work week down to a measly eighty five hours. Poor sod.

The labs were clear of the dead, which I was sure Rufus would have appreciated if he hadn't hastily excused himself to go "investigate" the back of the building. They were also completely untouched. I briefly considered going down into the Gi caves, but decided against it. She needed lab equipment, not demons. She had plenty of those.

Rufus came in looking dead pale but with his head held high and his customary smirk firmly fixed on his face. "No luck?"

I grunted a no at him and glanced once more around. I was sure there was something here that could help. I never was much for laboratories, much to my father's everlasting disgust. I had picked up a few basics from living with Hojo, mainly don't play with the gas burners and leave Petri dishes filled with unidentifiable goo alone. Usually when I had visited him at his lab, I had been more interested in his overworked, giddily happy self than the project that he would be gleefully babbling about. My chick did love his work.

"Nibelheim?" He tried to smother the small gulp he made. Apparently there was still something in his stomach that hadn't hit the ground in Nanaki's vegetable garden.

"Yes. Best to check all bases. She might have left something there." I remembered the memory chip I had found in the mansion back during Deepground, one that I now considered rather suspicious. Hadn't Cloud and the rest of Avalanche nearly taken the upper floors apart in their quest to find the key to my crypt? How could they have missed something that had been laying out on a table? Yes, Cloud could be oblivious, but he wasn't that stupid.

"There's nothing. I gutted that place." Rufus grumbled as he edged towards the door just in case he needed a quick escape.

"You are probably correct." I turned and strode out, missing the dramatic swirl that my cape used to give me. Misdirection and intimidation were a Turk's main weapons. My now shredded cape had provided both. "Still, we will go."

* * *

Thank you for all the reviews! I do love hearing from all of you :)


	16. Escapes

AN: Just wanted to thank the Labrat & Psycho Guild over at gaiaonline. They've given me a lot of encouragement just by talking about Vincent and Hojo. Thanks guys!

Now a Monster

Chapter 16: Escapes

**Sephiroth**

He was being continually surprised that his expectations were not even close to coming into being, which surprised him more. He had expected to be met with thinly veiled suspicion by the people of Bone Village, only to find that many of the people he had shepherded from the outlying areas of Kalm and Edge were there as well to greet him with cheery waves as they leaned over to their Bone Village hosts and whispered none to softly about him "rescuing" them from the demons. He'd expected something disastrous from his reunion with Hojo. All through his childhood, teens, and adult life, if he had been gone for even an overnight, he'd been welcomed home with rampaging chaos, wild jubilation, or complete indifference depending on Hojo's state of mind. The news that Hojo was kidnapped had, at first, been a relief, then as he watched his true father slowly melt into a silent, deadly rage his relief had turned to surprise. His last expectation, his meeting with Vincent with both of them knowing their true relationship, had been that it would be awkward and uncomfortable. Instead, he'd been treated to a demonstration of where he had really inherited his temper. Vincent had merely nodded to him when he arrived then returned his attention to trying to get assistance in finding his lost lover. Vincent had been calm, quiet, patient, and quite persuasive in his efforts. Unfortunately Avalanche was mostly composed of people who hated Hojo and were probably cheering for the opposing team. No fact, logic, or loyalty to Vincent would sway them. Highwind and Cloud had been the closest to being won over, but with Nanaki's calm, if somewhat faulty reasoning, Reeve's smooth maneuvering, and Tifa's suspicions, they had backed down to ineffectual mumbles. When his father realized Avalanche was going to not only be of no assistance, but were going to be an active threat, his attitude had very subtly shifted into cold, silent, patient, and completely deadly. Avalanche hadn't caught the change and had plowed ahead with their plans, certain of their position to carry out their plans and their ability to succeed.

A tactical mistake on their part.

They had miscalculated just who had been in charge of the city. For some reason, Highwind and Avalanche had decided they were in charge. With WRO's backing and Highwind's shipments of goods, they had settled into the largest of buildings, made plans, carried them out on a world wide scale, but forgot that they were no more than squatters in a city that was run, from the coast of the Northern Continent to the ice fields, by the residents of Bone Village. The awakening had come as a shock to them as the village headman, Davies, stood in front of them, listened to their demands, then shook his head.

"Sorry. Can't do that." Davies hadn't looked terribly sorry.

"But we need to go after him." Reeve had tried to take control, only to be looked at with a rather patient kind of stubbornness.

"The boats are gone." Davies shook his head. "Chocobos are gone, and your helicopters are out of fuel. Looks like you're stuck."

"You have to understand. It's vital that Vincent be found quickly." Reeve continued to plow ahead. "He could be in serious trouble."

Davies had snorted at that. "He's used to it. It would have been nice if he had a friend or two at his side, but…" He trailed off shrugging. "Well, that's not how it worked out, was it?"

Then Tifa and Highwind had tried to bluster their way through with curses, reminders of how lucky Bone Village was that Avalanche helped them out, and veiled threats. Davies had listened patiently through all of it, then walked away.

"Well, enjoy your stay." Davies voice had a slight smirk in it. "A few of the boys need some diggers, so when you get bored, you might give that a go."

Zack, who had stood next to him watching the little drama unfold, laughed. "Just who needs who here?"

"I heard Veld was staying up in Bone Village." Sephiroth murmured.

"Yeah, that little scene looked a lot like one of Veld's power plays, all smooth on the top and all teeth at the bottom." Zack watched the man amble off. "Your dad plays dirty."

Dirty indeed. He only wished his dear father hadn't removed the engines from the bikes. Cloud had started cursing to rival Highwind when they made that discovery. They also found that the little fuel they had for the aircraft was missing, along with every boat except a few kid's skiffs that had a disturbing tendency to capsize when hit by any wave over two feet high. All chocobo lures, even Cloud's and Avalanche's were suspiciously missing, as were all tame chocobos. The only way off the Northern Continent was to hike over to Icicle and hope Vincent's influence didn't reach that far.

From the smiles on the faces of the Villagers, Sephiroth felt positive that it did.

It wasn't that things got unpleasant. People greeted him in the street with smiles and an occasional hello. The evening his father disappeared, Davies' wife Bettina showed up as he was starting to get himself settled for the night, and in only a few minutes had him agreeing to "house-sit" for Vincent and Hojo while they were away. Instead of having to sleep on an uncomfortable, folding cot, he found himself in his father's guest room, sleeping on a comfortable bed, and in possession of detailed instructions about how to care for the gardens and plants. The next morning he was gifted with a casserole, a loaf of freshly baked bread, a pint of homemade strawberry jam, and a carafe of coffee.

"You just stay over here." Bettina had bustled around flicking dust off things. "Your father was so looking forward to seeing you." She sniffled a bit, pretending the dust was bothering her. "You just remember, there's two types of people, family and everyone else. In Bone Village, everyone is family from old Ice Pack Sammy to Cooper's little granddaughter to Hojo and Vincent. Family looks out for each other. You be careful around them." She nodded towards where Avalanche had set down their base of operations. "And you remember you're family."

Long after she left, he had sat and thought that over.

Remember, you're family.

Remember your family.

Such a little difference and impossible to tell which she meant. One way, she had meant that he was now part of Bone Village's family. It was, he had observed in the short time he'd been here, a rather eccentric family of mostly woodsy people, who liked to drink, laugh, and chatter about pieces of dead animals. They also liked to swill down poorly made coffee, listen to horrible music, and trap unsuspecting souls in mud pits –Zack was still trying to get all the dirt out of his hair. They also were not to be underestimated. They had stopped Avalanche dead in their tracks.

He hadn't even been able to do that.

The other way, she had been telling him something. He had a family. He now had a father, a real father. He could, if he wanted to and if they both survived, build a relationship with the man. He wasn't entirely sure what kind of relationship, but it was a possibility. If he accepted Valentine as his father though, he'd have to accept Hojo as well. That diary, and his father's reaction to Hojo's disappearance, had pointed to a deep, committed relationship. If he wanted Valentine, he had to take Hojo as well.

And right now his family was in danger.

He stood from where he had been sitting on the wall that surrounded his father's house and looked back over the city. People were walking along the streets, some hand in hand. Children were racing home from school with shrieks as teens sauntered along content in their superiority. Off in the distance, the main building spiraled upwards over the green and white cityscape. He wondered if any of Avalanche had noticed how far they were from where the majority of the populace lived.

Bettina was walking down the road, another casserole in her hands.

"Bettina." Sephiroth strode down the path towards her.

She turned and greeted him with a smile. "Well, how's the day treating you?"

"Uhmmm...fine. Fine." Sephiroth faltered, never having been in the position of casually greeting a neighbor and rather startled by the whole situation. "I just wanted to know if someone could look after my father's gardens while I'm away."

"Going someplace?" She arched an eyebrow, but her smile didn't waver.

"Yes." Sephiroth hesitated. He'd never said this before, but today was going to be a long day of firsts, it seemed. "I need to go help my family."

"Well, don't just stand there." She nodded approvingly. "You get to doing what needs to be done and don't you worry about things here. We can handle it."

He wondered just what she couldn't handle as he went back inside, packed up what few possessions he had, and left. He discovered a few other things as he went through the city, heading for the Sleeping Forest: news travels fast -as the sudden appearance of spells, potions, and camping equipment that got pressed into his hands as he walked attested to-, his new family wasn't as dimwitted as they might first appear –as the gold chocobo that stood tethered and well equipped on the path up to the forest showed- and his family understood him better than maybe he understood himself.

He thought that the lack of a Lunar Harp would be a problem. He had not been a welcome visitor the first time he had come through the forest while hunting Aeris. The trees had growled nastily at him and even Jenova possessed as he had been, he had hurried through as quickly as he could. On the trip in with Cloud and Zack, Cloud had strummed a harp the whole time, and again they hurried, flashing through the paths on the bikes. Now, he stood at the forest's edge and wondered what the problem had been. The forest was an absolute paradise. The trees swayed softly in a mild breeze. Soft carpets of moss stretched luxuriously around their trunks. Light filtered gently down through dancing leaves. He stepped in and felt himself relax. A small sprinkling of flowers begged to be admired. The moss beckoned with promises of comfortable, peaceful naps. The trees twinkled their leaves showing off for his approval.

"I have to go find my father." He found himself mumbling as his feet pulled him over to a particularly cushy, lush carpet of moss. "He needs me."

_Then go quickly, young one, and come back soon._

He and his chocobo were out of the forest standing and blinking at the wreckage of Bone Village before the words penetrated the pleasant haze he'd been in. He looked back at the forest and grinned. Zack would have taken a few steps back from that grin.

"Keep everyone else out. They are going to hunt my father down. Keep him safe." He called to the trees.

"Don't worry. We will." A young voice chirped from the branches.

He looked up into the too serious face of Yuffie Kisagari. He hadn't known that the girl could do anything but crack bad jokes and grin foolishly. This new face was sharp, intelligent, and determined. It was the face of the future ruler of Wutai.

She tossed a small bag to him, which turned out to be materia, including one of the missing chocobo lures. "You help Vinnie. I'll deal with Avalanche."

He nodded and turned away. "Good luck, then."

"Same to you, general."

**Tseng**

Tea.

Soothing music.

Relaxation technique.

More tea.

More music.

The new mantra: I am going to kill him.

It was today's mantra. It took the place of yesterday's mantra of: Rufus is out of his mind. He had actually chanted that one since the board of directors called him into an emergency session and gave him the joyful news that Rufus had appointed him acting president if anything were to happen to him.

That one had replaced the mantra of: Oh sweet Planet, keep him safe, that had sprung full life into his mind as each and every lead they had on Rufus's disappearance ran dead. The car had been found abandoned a few blocks from the office. The executives in the meeting, after a few hours of Rude persuading them about the benefits of telling the truth, had admitted Rufus had simply left by well hidden door, one that old president Shinra had used to spy on his underlings, beyond a few footprints in the dust nothing had been found. The only clue that had raised a small, wane hope had been the discovery that someone had bought three very expensive chocobos. The hope had died though when they found out that the expensive chocobos had been a black and two golds. That only narrowed the search down to the Western Continent. Unless Rufus had planned for that as well.

Airships and helicopters were out, but Junon was still a bustling port with troops shuffling to Wutai and the Eastern Continent. A quick change into a uniform and one WRO soldier and his three chocobos could have disappeared without a trace into the flocks that traveled back and forth via cargo ship on an hourly basis.

And he had taught Rufus how to do it.

He sat at Rufus's desk desperately sipping tea. Paperwork was piling up around him. The e-mail signal on the computer seemed to flash at him more and more insistently. The phone blinked demanding his attention as executives dithered at the other end. He'd stationed Rude outside the office to discourage any brave soul that might have become desperate enough to intrude on his breakdown.

He turned the peaceful, flute music up a few more notches and dug out his aroma therapy kit.

He had an appointment in twenty minutes for a teleconference with Reeve about finding Valentine. Avalanche was apparently trapped in the City of the Ancients and wanted help to either escape from their neighborly captors, or for the Turks to locate and detain Valentine. Tseng planned on laughing in Reeve's face. He'd been considering it since last night while riffling again through Rufus's desk in a hopeless hope that he'd missed some clue to where his tormenter had disappeared to. It would do him good to laugh at WRO's executive and his demands. He even felt justified. He was in the middle of a losing war against a crazed witch with an army of demons. He presently had an investigation staff of two overwork men, who were starting to look a bit like wild chocobos being asked to go trotting through the Midgar Zolom's swamp. He still had his information network, but no one to take the information. And, now, he had to find a stray president.

He wasn't even going to get into what had happened the last time he had tried to find Valentine. He just accepted that if the man didn't want to be found, he wasn't going to try to find him. If by some chance he did find Valentine, he was going to hand him his gun, his security badge, all his keys and codes, congratulate the man on his resumption of the title of Turk Leader, and then run before Valentine could gather together his wits to refuse. He'd then spend the rest of his days in Valentine's coffin hiding from any and all people wearing suites, blonds, people named Shinra, and above all any soul with the name Rufus.

"Sir," Rude poked his head in the door. "You asked to be reminded that you have ten minutes until the meeting with Mr. Tuisti."

He nodded, took another whiff of the supposedly calming lavender from the aroma diffuser, sipped more of his tea, inhaled deeply a few more times, and tried to soak up more flute music. He then stood and walked towards the door, pausing to look back at the desk.

How many times had he walked in to find Rufus looking up at him from behind a pile of papers with one eyebrow arched and a smile quirking the corner of his lips? He'd taken that for granted. Just as he had taken other things for granted: Rufus's routine explosion of nerves as his secretaries vented their frustrations, the car rides to and from meetings with the blond president leaning back in the seat eyeing him with a patient tiredness as he recited the schedule for the next week, even the taunting little comments. He also missed things that only last week he'd been strictly telling himself he was better off avoiding: the memory of the taste and feel of Rufus's skin, silky smooth and slightly salty from the sweat of their coupling, the shudder of pleasure that always vibrated through Rufus the instant they joined, the feel of Rufus's legs as they wrapped tight around his waist, the soft cries he could tempt from the blonde's throat, the way Rufus would arch…

No. He had to stop.

There was a meeting in only a few minutes. He had to deal with WRO and Avalanche then he had a building full of hyperventilating executives to sooth. After that, he could possibly attend to his duties as Turk Leader and try to cobble something together out of the disaster he was presently faced with.

He walked out the door to the teleconference room remembering the plaque that had been in the lobby of the Shinra Tower commemorating Vincent Valentine. He wondered if there would be another plaque. This one would be his and on it would be inscribed: Worst Turk Leader- Lost President Shinra during a crisis; Couldn't keep his pants up during business hours; Presided over a department of two and still had discipline and moral problems; And towards the end of his not so brilliant career, he was such a liability in combat that old men had to sacrifice their lives to keep him safe. Next to it, would be Valentine's remade plaque: Best Turk Leader – Saved the world twice from meglomaniacal psychopaths; His department respected, feared, and loved him; His skills remain unequalled in not only firearms, but espionage, information gathering, and diversionary tactics; He never once misplaced President Shinra, fucked him during office hours, or let other people die to protect his own life.

The door to the conference room swung shut behind him with a soft thud. The video screen was already turned on and glowing softly in the fashionably low lighting that filled the room. A long black table flanked by cherry wood chairs took up most of the space. At the end of the table a folder sat ready for him next to the control panel for the screen. Either Rude or Reno had even put a cup of tea by the folder to help sooth his already frazzled nerves.

He sat down in the only padded chair in the room and turned towards the screen as it flickered to life. As Reeve's image blurred onto the screen, he flipped through the folder and sipped his tea.

"Hello, Tseng." Reeve greeted when his image finally sharpened. "Still no word on Rufus?"

"No." He looked up casually, as if nothing was particularly bothering him. "No word on Valentine?"

"We still haven't located him." The other man settled back into what looked to be a folding metal chair. "We could really use your assistance."

Tseng arched one eyebrow, feeling as if Rufus was sitting next to him whispering suggestions, "And here I was going to ask for yours. You do have more employees in the field than I do."

Reeve glanced quickly away towards the right. Tseng guessed that one of his fellow Avalanchers was perched just out of range. It was probably either Tifa or Nanaki. Cloud and Cid would have stood in view of the camera. Yuffie wouldn't have been caught dead in the middle of a business conference. Barret was still missing and from all appearances no one except his adoptive daughter, Marlene was missing him. Aeris was still off in the Promised Land and Valentine was probably rejoicing in his freedom from all of them.

"Yes, but most of them are not trained in locating missing persons."

Tseng noted the qualification of "most of them," which meant that some of them were trained. It was just a matter of how well trained they were. Cait Sith, the cat-rat, was trained in a variety of covert skills. He also knew that Reeve had planted a few moles in Shinra's ranks. Tseng was happy to give them a home, as long as they continued to feed Reeve the information he wanted Reeve to have. It might be interesting to see just how skilled those operatives were.

Tseng sipped his tea, trying to look falsely sympathetic. He'd seen the expression on Rufus's face enough that he felt he could pull it off tolerably well. "I wish I could help, but with President Shinra's present disappearance, I'm hardly in the position to assist you."

Reeve was looking off to the right again, and this time, Tseng could hear someone whispering, "Ask for chocobos or fuel. If we got those, we could hunt them down ourselves."

Tseng consulted the file a moment, pretending not to have heard. Avalanche really was trapped up north. How interesting. He also considered the phrasing. The whisperer had used the words hunt and them. He could assume that them might be Valentine and possibly Hojo, but what was he to make of the word hunt? One found their friends, or even tried to help their friends, but hunt them? Just how popular was Valentine with his Avalanche associates? Rufus had mentioned that there seemed to be cracks forming in the once united front the team had presented. How deep had those cracks fissured downwards?

"I suppose you are right." Reeve leaned forwards. "Perhaps you could assist in a smaller way. Our airships are out of fuel and…" He hesitated. Something that put Tseng on alert. Something had happened that Reeve was trying to avoid. "…we don't seem to have any gold chocobos up here."

Tseng knew for a fact that Bone Village and the new City of the Ancients had about seven gold chocobos and nine mountain chocobos. He'd been dragged out to the chocobo pens by Elena during his recovery to watch the stupid birds do their mating dances. Elena had been enthralled. He'd wanted to fall to the ground and pass out, not necessarily in that order.

"Oh, that's unfortunate." Tseng sipped his tea. "All our golds, blues, and blacks are out with the troops at the moment." He made a small show of putting his tea down, picking up the folder and making a notation in it. "However, as soon as some return to Junon, I will have them sent to you. How many do you need?"

Reeve glanced back to the right. Tseng was now guessing it was Tifa sitting off camera. Nanaki would have given different, more insightful advice.

"Five or six would be good." Reeve bit his lip thoughtfully. "If that is too much trouble, perhaps you could send a ship?"

Tseng nearly spat out the tea he was sipping in surprise. He covered by tipping the cup up a bit more to hid his face. Avalanche couldn't even get a ship? Bone Village had a thriving shipping industry of fishermen, merchants, and scientific vessels that even after the attack still kept their routines. There was no way that Avalanche couldn't get a ship, unless…

"A ship?" Tseng prompted.

…unless they were being stopped. This call wasn't a request for assistance to find Valentine. It was a thinly disguised call for the Turks to save Avalanche's ass from whatever was going on up north.

"Yes, the ships from the village had to get dry docked. A wood eating sea snail was burrowing into the hulls." Reeve had pulled himself together, crossing his legs and folding his hands neatly in his lap.

Tseng noted the defensive body language and cocked his head slightly, as if listening to Reeve with interest. "Snails?"

"Yes, quite an aggressive species too."

Tseng nodded and sipped his tea. Hadn't he run into this himself back when he was hunting for Valentine? It was Davies, who had spent years in Veld's sly, cunning company. Avalanche was being stopped by the villagers. From what he had learned and pieced together, Bone Villagers were a clannish group that protected their own. Valentine and Hojo were considered villagers so that protection covered them. If Davies was indeed trapping Avalanche, it was because he considered Avalanche a threat that had to be held in place, held away from "hunting" for Valentine and Hojo.

His loyalty to Avalanche was zero. He never liked Hojo, but after reading his diary, he could understand the man and maybe even pity him. Valentine though was a Turk. It didn't matter if he'd been a Turk thirty years ago or last week. A Turk was a Turk for life. If he hadn't figured that out before, Veld had finally driven it through his head up in Bone Village.

"Hmmm. I might have had a brief about that. I'll look into it. However, our fleet is already stretched thin." Tseng paused, letting himself look thoughtful, as if trying to remember something. "We do have some iron hulled ships, but those are all in use as military vessels." He made another note in the file. "I might be able to swing a fishing boat your way, but with the present situation, all the larger fishing vessels are being used to feed the populace or the city. Any infestations that would cripple even one small boat would be a serious loss. You would also have to wait until the crew finishes their fishing run before returning to Junon."

Reeve looked like he wanted to start cursing. Tseng sipped more tea and smiled to himself. If, by some chance a ship did land near Bone Village, he would make sure it took a long, long cruise before arriving in Junon where he would personally make sure anyone from Avalanche would be met with a… he smiled to himself…an avalanche of problems.

"Tseng…" Reeve's voice had dropped into a rather low threatening tone. "I know you have ships."

"Having ships and being able to divert them from their present uses are two different things Reeve." Tseng kept his face neutral. "I will do my best to assist, but I am in the middle of my own crisis."

His previous guesses were verified as Tifa stalked away from her perch to the right of the screen and stomped her way out of the room muttering half heard curses. Reeve turned to watch her go then when the door closed behind her returned to their meeting.

"Okay, Tseng. I understand." He leaned back in the chair taking a deep breath. "I even approve. If by some chance you do find Vincent, please, don't tell me."

**James**

_Poor ass_. James watched Hojo stumbled down the stairs to the labs below.

"James." Lucrecia called as she walked into the main room. "We'll be busy most of the day. Can you check the grounds for me?"

He gave her his usual besotted smile, "Of course. Is there anything else you'd like me to do?" He edged his voice with a tone of eager hopefulness.

_Just like a puppy._

_Shut up. I'm working here._

"No. Not today." She gave him a smile. "Be careful James, I'd hate for you to get hurt. Those wolves can be dangerous."

Wolves. Demons were more like it. It was amazing what the proper drugs and a bit of materia laden suggestion could do for one's view on reality. He had honestly seen those shambling offenses against nature as Nibel wolves. He wondered what Hojo was seeing. Was he seeing the somewhat gloomy, but eerily beautiful mansion that James had been living in, or was he seeing what was truly around them, a barren, stark, military complex with concrete walls, clanging iron staircases, and only a few scavenged pieces of good furniture.

"I can handle a few wolves." He gave her a cocky smile.

She eyed him like a piece of candy then shook her head.

_Just decided even the zombie would notice if she fucked you._

_He must be having troubles keeping it up._

"Alright. See you tonight." She blew him a quick kiss and followed after Hojo.

_I certainly hope not. Even Weapons have their limits._

James gave a small snort and went out to do his rounds. Not that he expected anything to have changed, but he had to keep up appearances until he was clear of the area. While the files hadn't divulged any sinister plans, they had given him a wealth of information and more than a few hints at what she had planned for them.

He was now the semi-proud host of one Weapon, Chaos.

_Only semi-proud. Well…that's better than Valentine's uptight wailing…_

He'd been captured during an attack on a town and hauled back. He'd apparently been nasty enough to tick off his hostess who decided to repay him by dumping him into a mako tank and shoving an entity from the lifestream into his head. She'd been rather interested to find that Chaos had made himself at home by doing a bit of remodeling, making him younger, stronger, and virtually immortal. It had somewhat disgusted him to see how she had tested the virtually immortal part.

_It wasn't pleasant. Be happy I was here._

She also had acquired that girl, Elena, who had the bad taste to be captured in another attack and being physically fit. It seemed to amuse Lucrecia that she'd acquired a female for a female entity, Jenova. Unfortunately, Jenova wasn't playing nice-nice and was resisting being bound into a host. The girl was ready for her new life as a Jenova puppet, but Jenova kept refusing to manifest. This prompted Lucrecia to further modify the girl, hoping to tempt the entity with a perfectly modified host.

Barret had been her biggest disappointment. Lucrecia had planned on him to hold the entity Omega.

_Omega isn't going to fall for that again. He's still ticked about the last time._

Instead, the man had rejected the treatments. The more she had tried to modify him into being a host, the more he had deteriorated, until he became completely useless. That had created a problem. She needed a host and she needed one quickly, so she had hinted to him that he should get Hojo.

_And like the good little fool you were, you did it. Wanna doggie treat?_

_Fuck off._

_To do that, I'd have to use your body. Now which do you prefer, the zombie or the bitch?_

The zombie was her former choice for Omega, but he, like Barret kept rejecting the treatments. When Barret became unusable, she fell back on her second choice. She was already making plans for acquiring another host if, or more likely when, Hojo's system finally failed completely. The only reason she was still using him was his knowledge of mako was greater than hers, and she wanted him to help her craft Elena into the perfect host for Jenova. Once the transfer of that entity was complete, she would dispose of her puppet and grab the next on the list, some poor kid named Reno.

She thought it was funny that all her toys would be Turks. She had begun her project with Valentine, V., a Turk, and she was going to end it with Turks too.

While his file hadn't stated it, that meant he was a Turk. He just wasn't entirely sure what that meant. His only clues came from Valentine, V.'s file. A man named Veld had been mentioned a few times as V's partner. This Veld hadn't endeared himself to Lucrecia back when she was first experimenting on V and she'd made a few remarks in the file. Unless there had been an odd naming trend in the population, there was more than a good chance he was that Veld.

_You are._

_Gee. Thanks._

_Any time._

He shoved open the bunker like door to go out into the compound outside. Or what passed as outside. It was hard to really call the cavern that loomed around him the great outdoors. It was a far cry from the overgrown but somehow pretty gardens and quaint town he had pictured in his drugged state. He pretended to look around the garden, shielding his eyes from the nonexistent sunlight, before heading down the concrete street that cut through what looked to be storage bunkers. The "wolves" were nowhere in sight. He wasn't surprised, what few "wolves" she kept around, tended to disappear unless she suddenly decided to go "shopping" for supplies. Then, she'd ask him to accompany her to keep her safe from the "wolves" and any dangerous people they might meet.

He wondered now whether he might want to meet one of those dangerous people. It might be rather enlightening.

_You're a curious little bastard, aren't you._

_I thought you were busy figuring out who to fuck._

_I'm hoping to meet one of those dangerous people. My choices are too limited._

He left the bunkers behind and went up the small incline that had once presented itself to him as a steep mountain path. Beyond it, instead of the forbidding mountain peaks, he found a tunnel that headed upwards through a series of broken pilings and scattered rubble. It looked like a serious fight had taken place in it. Lucrecia had pleaded, which in his drugged mind had equaled an order from god, for him not to endanger himself by going up there.

_But here you go anyways. I'm so proud._

_You're the one who wants to get a fuck toy. Well, there's your door to paradise._

He glanced once more behind him, half wishing he could take that girl, Elena, or the zombie with him. That would really kill her plans.

_Not as much as you suddenly taking off. Bet they'll be after you in a couple of hours._

_And that's going to be a problem?_ He'd noticed that the "wolves" didn't seem to like him. If he was talking to his unwanted partner, the "wolves" scattered away from him with their tails tucked firmly against their bellies.

_Not for us._

It took him awhile to reach the surface. He'd had to navigate through piles of rubble, a crushed bunker door, some rather gruesome remains of what appeared to be soldiers or guards of some sort, and tangles of wiring that had been pulled down and shredded. When he got into clear air, he found himself in the deserted wreckage of a city. Buildings were collapsed into rubble all around him. Cars, half crushed and tossed around in piles like leaves blocked streets.

Looking around, James took off at a trot up a street that he remembered as a passageway through a series of caves. Wherever he was, it looked like it had been mostly abandoned for a long time. A thick layer of dirt covered most of the streets he jogged along. Windows were impossible to see through with their caked on layers of grit. He took a turn and went down a slope to where he once thought a mountain pass was and emerged onto what had once, in his mind, had been a clearing. Instead, it was a small, semi-intact airstrip. The helicopter he had used to get Hojo was still sitting where he had left it.

He glanced around at the wreckage of machine parts that littered the surrounding area searching for fuel. If he could get the copter working, he'd have a good head start on her and her "wolves." He'd need that if he was going to not just get clear, but to get lost. As long as she didn't have him, she couldn't do whatever it was she wanted to do. Her files had made that clear: she needed all three hosts.

_Watch out!_

James leapt to the side as something black raced towards him.

_What the fuck!_

He felt something pick him up by the back of his neck, and he lashed out with his feet, feeling the satisfying thud of a solid hit. The grip that had him though didn't loosen. Instead it tightened, crushing around his throat. He could feel the long fingers pressing into the veins and arteries of his throat, cutting off his blood flow.

"Why you miserable, son of a…" He lashed out again.

"I'd rather you were alive, but…" A deep voice hissed in his ear.

_I think you just met one of those dangerous people. Hmmm…he's rather fuckable._

_Shut up and help out!_

_Nah. He's not going to kill you._

The pressure seemed to contradict that. He kicked again, only to be slammed to the ground with a weight coming down on top of him, holding him prone. The only good thing about this position was the pressure was gone. He tried to shift, hoping for some kind of leverage, only to find his captor had him pinned.

_Things are looking good._

_Shut the fuck up._

_Well, that was the point._

"Where are they?" The voice growled in his ear.

He growled back and tried again to move. He got his face ground into the pavement for his trouble.

"Where?" The voice sounded impatient.

"Get the hell off." James snarled back.

"I could break your neck." The voice matched the threat with a hand suddenly twisting his head viciously to the side, making his neck muscles strain as they pulled taunt.

He now got to see his captor. He'd half feared it would be one of Lucrecia's pets that he hadn't met yet. Instead, he was facing…

_You know him as Valentine, S.. Eminently fuckable. See if you can flip over and get him out of those pants._

…a death angel and if those files and some of the comments he'd heard were right, not his mother's good little boy.

"If you're looking for your father, he's not here." James had few problems spilling information to people who disliked the same people he did. "And if we're not careful, you're going to have a fun reunion with your dear mother, who's having a bitch of a time getting Jenova to take another host."

"Hmmm." Valentine, S. released some of the pressure on his head and seemed to be considering something. "And you are?"

"Depends." James forced himself to relax. A bit of cautious submission might get him free to move quicker than continuing to struggle.

"Not a good answer." Valentine, S. didn't seem in the mood to trust him, relaxed and submissive or not.

"But truthful." James turned his head to look at his captor. "Your dear mother wiped my memory."

"Not my problem." Valentine, S. was certainly not overflowing with sympathy. "Let's try something else. Where's Hojo?"

"The zombie? He's down below, basking in Lucrecia's loving goodness." James nearly grunted as Valentine, S. moved, standing upright with frightening speed and hauling him up as well to dangle from his hand. "If you want him alive, you might want to get him before he expires from all the love and care she's showering on him."

Valentine, S. dropped him, "Do as I tell you and you might get to live."

James rubbed his sore spots, considering his captor. "You're going to have problems getting down there. She's got demons guarding the area."

"You managed well enough." Valentine, S. headed for the entrance to the underground layer. "Now get moving, or I'll kill you."

James eyed the helicopter, then turned and followed. Valentine, S. had potential. The strength and speed he displayed were not normal, and from what he understood of Lucrecia's scientific blathering, he'd never been normal. With a little assistance, Valentine, S. could do some serious damage to his sweet beloved's plans.

"Wait." James jogged to come up even with Valentine, S. "There might be a way. There's a ventilation system that goes through the complex."

Valentine, S. paused, his long silver hair swaying. "Yes, if this was built by Shinra… They did favor a single system driven from a centralized main core. By going through the primary ducts, we could easily bypass most security." He turned to James. "How well guarded is it."

"Not at all. I didn't know about it until recently, and she depends on the demons for protection."

It wasn't the most pleasant way to enter the complex. While the ducts gave them access, they were also home to some small monsters that Valentine, S. dispatched quickly, leaving their small charred corpses to be crawled over.

"Would you rather I used the sword?" Valentine, S. growled. "Then you could squish through their gutted bodies."

"Shut up." James felt that the world would be a finer place if smartasses would keep their mouths shut.

The main building was empty when they finally pulled themselves out of a duct that opened into what might have been a storage area. James had hardly paid attention to it before, believing it to be no more than an unused bedroom, complete with draperies and overly ornate furniture. He wondered what would have happened if he'd come in and tested the bed.

Valentine, S. looked around and moved to look out the door. "How many demons are in the building?"

"None. They stay outside." James walked out the door and headed towards the main living area. "There's only her, Hojo, and me in this area."

"That's all?" His silver haired companion prowled suspiciously behind him fingering his sword.

"Come on. I want to either kill that bitch or cure your curiosity so I can get the fuck out of here." James moved to the catwalk that he'd once thought of as a railed balcony. "I'm not ending my days as some pathetic, drugged dog."

Valentine, S. was about to make a wise ass comeback, but stopped as Hojo wandered into the room. As usual, the man barely knew where he was. He wobbled aimlessly around, muttering nonsense to himself.

"…left it over here, on the armchair." The scientist stumbled over to the metal folding chair and fumbled around a bit. "Have to find it… Where could it have gone?"

James shrank back, waving his companion, who had crept forward to watch, to sink deeper into the shadows that lurked behind them.

"Sweetheart, I've been waiting. We still have those tests to run." Lucrecai slipped up next to Hojo, sliding her arm around his waist.

"Of course, of course." The poor ass looked around. "I just left something up here. I could have sworn…"

She pecked a kiss on his cheek. "Alright. Don't be long." She looked up and around. "Have you seen James?"

"James?" Hojo teetered off staring at the floor. "James…"

"Yes, if you see him, tell him I want to talk to him." She turned towards the door.

"James…James…" Hojo bumped into a wall and tumbled into a heap. He floundered around a few seconds before slowly pulling himself back up, bracing his weight against the wall and rubbing his head. "I have a headache. I should lay down."

"You promised you'd help me with Jenova, sweetheart." She gave the unsteady scientist one more glance then headed back downstairs. "Don't keep me waiting."

"Yes, yes. I promised to help you with Jenova. Can't keep you waiting." Hojo took a few steps then tumbled back into a heap.

Lucrecia disappeared back down to the labs, leaving Hojo to untangle himself.

"What did she do?" Valentine, S. watched the wretch below crawl pathetically over to the folding chair and try to stand.

"Drugs. She needs him to help her with Jenova." James looked away as the chair collapsed beneath the scientist's meager weight. "She's also trying to put some entity called Omega into him, but he can't take it. It's killing him and she's just watching to see how he manages to die."

"Where is it…" Hojo whimpered. "I had it. Where did it go? I have to find it."

"What's he looking for?" Valentine, S. was making his way towards the stairway down.

"Don't know. He's been looking for whatever it is for weeks." James followed. "Probably his mind."

The silver haired man stopped once he reached the bottom of the stairs and whispered, "Okay, here's the plan. We grab him and haul him back through the vents. Once we get to the other side, we make for Junon."

"Sounds wonderful." James hissed back. "Where's Junon?"

"East." Valentine, S. slipped forward, eyeing the door Lucrecia disappeared into.

Hojo had managed to get to his hands and knees, his head hanging down. "I have to find it. I have to find it."

Valentine, S. caught him around the abdomen and put his hand over his mouth. "It's alright, father. It's me. I know where it is, but you have to be quiet."

James still edgily standing at the stairs frowned. _Father?_

_Yep. That's one of them._

_You've been quiet. It's been nice. Try to make it longer next time._

_Shut it. I've been busy covering your backsides. _

_Gee. Thanks._

_Get moving. The three losers can come in here, you know, and if they do, this touching family drama's history._

"Hurry. Company's coming." James hissed.

Valentine, S. didn't waste time with the stairs, he just leapt up to the catwalk, still holding the feebly moving Hojo. "Then hurry it up. We're leaving."

Thanks for the reviews!


	17. Found You

AN: In case you are wondering, yes, Sephiroth gave James the wrong direction. He may be his father's good boy, but that doesn't mean he trusts James. And no, this hasn't been proofed or betaed yet. I'm so pathetically late I wanted to get it to you fast.

**Now a Monster**

**Chapter 17: Found You**

* * *

**Hojo**

"It's alright, father. It's me. I know where it is, but you have to be quiet."

_Father…_

…_father…_

Yes, I was a father. I had a fine son that I had named Sephiroth. He was a beautiful child with a halo of silver hair and sweet green eyes. He liked a tiny stuffed jumping that's right ear kept falling off and scuffed around the kitchen every morning in his feetie pajamas hoping for buttered toast with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on it.

_Father, come with me…_

Of course, I would. But, when did my boy get so tall?

Oh well, you know what they say, children grow so fast.

He seemed to want to leave the mansion…

…the mansion…

…my son…the mansion…my son shouldn't be in… danger…

Yes, Sephiroth needed to leave the mansion. The mansion was dangerous for him. Bad things could happen to my son in the mansion. Terrible things could happen here. People died in this mansion. There were demons here, and monsters, and pain, and horror. My son had to leave the mansion and he had to leave it quickly.

I just wish I knew why he wanted me to go with him. I had work to do. My angel needed my help and how could I deny her? Well, I could indulge my son for awhile. He really did ask for so little: a piece of toast here, a seven foot long katana there. I would have liked him to come to me with these little adventures when I had more free time though.

Children really are an incomprehensible bunch.

Still, how could I object with his hand plastered over my mouth? I did wish he'd let me find what I lost. I needed to find it. It was very, very important that I find it. It was priceless, precious, the most important thing in my life and it was lost.

_I know where it is._

Did he? He was such an imp at times. He probably hid it. I didn't have a doubt that he'd give it back. Despite everything, he really was a good boy. Did he have to drag me through attics and caves though? Behind that idiot Turk no less.

I didn't like that Turk. There was something not right about him. Beyond his despicable, wife-fondling tendencies, he was an affront to every nerve in my body. There was nothing about him that I could find right. His hair was wrong, too light, like one of those gigolos that paraded around Costa del Sol. His voice was too grating with no polish or culture in it. His face lacked all refinement, too coarse featured with a blunt chin and dull, oafish cheekbones. His body was too thick and stocky, with no elegance or grace. In short, his mother, after giving birth to such a monstrosity, should have apologized to the world and then pitched him out a window, preferably one over three stories up.

I really wished Sephiroth would get to where he hid my…my…what had I lost? Well, I'd recognize it when I found it. Damn this headache. It was making it hard to think. I really wanted to lie down and rest, maybe then it would go away. But I had so much to do. I had to look around. I lost it and I had to find it again. I also promised to help my angel do something. What had it been again?

Ah, well. If Sephiroth wanted to play, I could play with him. At least he'd outgrown that unwholesome fascination with finger-paints. Why toddlers wanted to rove around smearing brightly colored handprints on walls was one mystery of childhood I didn't want to explore. Still, they were Sephiroth's handprints, so I left a few.

…but where had I left them? They weren't at the mansion. The mansion was a bad place for Sephiroth to be. No, he had left them someplace else…

When we finally emerged onto the streets outside, I could hear Nibel wolves in the distance. For once, that dumb Turk had the sense to look worried. Mind you, why he was worried over a pack of scrawny wolves was only a testament to his complete incompetence. He really didn't even deserve the distinction of being a Turk, he was no more than a thug. I wondered why…

…Vin…

…Vel…

…what was that name… I just had it…

Oh well…

…why he hadn't been fired yet.

Sephiroth…well, well… he really had grown up hadn't he… had put me down and was absently supporting me as he turned and assessed the situation with the wolves. He had grown into a fine man. Tall, slender, and possessing all the elegance that that dimwitted thug lacked. I was going to comment on how proud I was of him then remembered that he had asked me to be quiet. That was quite understandable. He needed to concentrate on those pesky wolves. Unlike the mindless barbarian that was with us, he was hampered with me. I really didn't like that he was endangering himself by carrying me, but my headache was making me wobbly. If he was determined to show me where he hid my…my

"_You've been working too hard, again." The slender man with soft black hair and warm amber-gold eyes reached out and brushed his hand against my cheek. _

_I was sitting in a dark, dismal lab that smelled like dirt and chemicals. Yellowish light shown down from a swinging light bulb that dangled from whitish bone rafters. Around me, state of the art equipment perched indignantly on cheap folding tables._

_I brushed his hand away, not wanting to say he was right. My head ached, my back felt as if it was permanently and prematurely stooped, my eyes were blurry, and my temper, as one poor test beaker that had the nerve to be chipped found out, had become sharp and edgy._

_He sighed at me. _You are impossible when you're like this.

_He didn't say it, but I knew what that sigh meant. My temper grumbled._

"_I'm fine. I'll be home in an hour or two. I just need to finish…"_

_He interrupted by cupping my face in his hands, his eyes filled with concern. "You want so much so fast that your body can't keep up. Come home and rest. You'll get twice as much done tomorrow as you would today."_

_I gave my head a stubborn toss. "I said I'm fine."_

_He sighed again_ (You really try my patience) _then reached in a pocket. "I thought you'd say that. Here, take these." He set two pills down on the counter. "They'll help the headache."_

_He walked out without looking at me again, and I sat there feeling foolish watching the door swing shut after him. He was right. I knew he was right. He knew he was right and knew that I knew that he was right. Still, there I sat with my head feeling like my eyeballs were being slowly pushed out of my head as my temples collapsed inward with two little pills and a lab that smelled like a root cellar._

Sephiroth picked me up again and we were off at a trot. We were headed through town and up into the Nibel hills. In the spring, it would be beautiful with wild apple trees and fields of mountain flowers. As we passed, all I saw was winter's stark grip. The trees were bare and frail looking in the cold light, the ground cover was thin, brown, and shriveled, even the small animals that would peer out from the underbrush had disappeared, waiting for warmer weather to socialize. I hated Nibelheim in winter.

I didn't really like it all that much in spring either, now that I thought of it. Maybe my son had the right idea, we should leave this place. But I had work to do…

The cretin was trotting quickly up the street ahead of us, looking back over his shoulder and holding a gun. I wondered if he knew how to use it. Not that it mattered. Sephiroth was more than capable of dealing with a few mangy wolves, even carrying me. We went through the town square. Someone, probably an executive that had come to talk with Gast, had left a helicopter there. The moron instantly went to it, but my son said something and waved for him to head farther out of town.

My headache was worse than normal. My son had spoken nearly in my ear and I couldn't understand the words. I was so tired. I wanted to go home and flop on that oversized bed he'd bought and curl up. I could sleep until the headache let up. Maybe when I felt better, I'd microwave some of my mother's food and we'd…

…we…

Who was we? I was me and Sephiroth was definitely not there, so…

I wished my head didn't hurt so badly.

The wolves came running the second we got through the town gate. The dolt shot at a few, but the way the wolves didn't even flinch, I doubted he even came close to hitting his target. My son took care of them with a few well executed swings of his sword. I could still hear more in the distance though. They were probably starving, the poor things. Winters in these mountains were brutal. The smell of spilled blood would draw them.

Sephiroth took off, jogging ahead of the idiot towards where a patient chocobo was waiting for him. It was really a rather impressive bird with not just yellow, but gold feathers. He carefully put me on the back of the bird then tossed the twit up in front of me. The two seemed to have a bit of discussion, which got interrupted as a few wolves appeared, probably drawn by the scent of the chocobo. They were no match for my son, and in a moment, Sephiroth was behind me, holding me steady as the chocobo raced away.

The wolves howled after us, which seemed to excite the imbecile we were apparently traveling with. Sephiroth didn't seem to mind. The bird sprinted lightly through the mountains and came down into a field. I got a bit of a surprise when we found ourselves at the seashore. We must have gotten twisted around in the mountains and came out near the coast towards Wutai. More amazing, the bird never paused as it trotted into the waves and merrily seaward. The wolves gathered at the seashore snarling impotent threats at us as our bird warked happily and paced over the waves as happily as its brethren would a smooth field.

What a marvel!

I would have to ask Sephiroth about it later. Right now I was tired. I leaned back against him and closed my eyes. If I could only get just a few moments of rest, I would ask about this amazing bird. Just a few moments, then I could get back to work, then I could find what I had lost.

"_Why do you do these things to yourself?"_

_I was lying on an oversized bed with the black haired man sitting next to me, stroking my hair. My head ached and his soothing motions seemed to dull the sharp edges of the pain. Outside a wind rustled through the Midgar night, causing the plants in the small window planter to scratch against the bedroom window._

"_Go to sleep, love, go to sleep. The Planet will still be here for you to look at tomorrow." His voice was a soft, loving whisper._

_I reached out an arm and wrapped it around his waist."But you won't."_

_He'd be gone. He was always leaving, racing off to faraway places to do important things, leaving me behind. I didn't want to wake up to find him gone again. He'd received orders and his bags were already packed, waiting for him by the front door. He'd be gone before the storm broke and I'd be left in a cold apartment with the rain._

"_I will be here tomorrow. I promise."He bent to brush a light kiss against my temple._

"_Promise?"I was acting like a child, but was too tired to care._

**Vincent**

"Promise." I woke up from the dream to find Rufus looking at me.

We were on a military cargo ship heading towards Junon. A bit of a risky move with him along, but not too bad. He'd managed to grow a scraggly beard in our sojourn and with a bit of hair dye, some brown tinted contacts scavenged from the ruins of a shop called Through the Looking Glasses, and the bulky WRO soldier combat gear, he wasn't recognizable as Shinra's polished president. As long as he didn't have to talk to anyone who knew him, he'd do fine. He had problems disguising that snobby upper-class accent of his.

"Can't you be quiet?" He also had problems disguising his natural tendency to be a pain in the ass.

I grunted and rolled back over. I was dressed much the same, with the same brown contacts and bulky gear. I had trimmed my hair back to a rough version of what it had been like when I'd still been a Turk, but having done that before, I knew I had a week or two at most before it again fell into the now usual shaggy waves. One of the not so wonderful perks of an overactive healing ability.

The ship was clanging and groaning around us. By the sounds of hurried feet and blaring intercom announcements, we'd arrived in port and disembarkation was underway. Since I was a great believer in not just dressing for a part, but assuming the persona of the one I was pretending to be, I ignored the noise and tried to get back to sleep.

"Don't we have to get moving?"

I didn't have to check to see the slight indications that he was fretting. Contrary to the image he projected to the world, I had come to find out that Rufus Shinra was actually a very high strung and nervous person at heart. Oh, he could shoot a monster with as much fuss as he'd brush off a piece of lint, and he'd take boneheadedly brave action without even considering the consequences, but put him in a situation where there was no immediate threat, no action he could take, no variable he could finesse into place and he would come apart. In short, waiting was not one of his strengths.

"We're soldiers." I looked over my shoulder at him. "We are expected to stay at our posts. Seeing that our post is in the bottom of a ship with a bunch of machinery headed for the smelting plant, we're doing fine."

"We are supposed to…" He glanced around at the crates we were supposedly watching over.

Since the crates were filled with machine parts scavenged from a sugar refinery, I doubted they were in much danger of being either suddenly needed in any kind of emergency or of being stolen. We had been assigned to this post because of my demeanor of over-eager helpfulness laced with a large dose of inept bumbling. The commanding officer had taken one look at me, a half look at my "buddy" and a long stare at the broken crates of supplies I had "accidentally" crushed with a forklift, nearly killing three other soldiers in the process, and assigned us to a post where the least amount of damage could be done until he could dock ship and shove us to the next unlucky person who would be in charge. He was probably praying to the Planet that we'd jump ship and drownd.

"Stay out of the way." I pulled my combat jacket closer and tipped my helmet to cover my eyes better. "Right now, the commanding officer is trying to forget we exist. We should encourage that."

Rufus huffed and settled down. The boat wallowed against the dock. More trusted soldiers raced to get prepared for unloading. The intercom periodically crackled into life.

"She can't be using the underground reactor in Junon." He was back to trying to figure out where Lucrecia was. "The only other reactors were in Midgar and Fort Condor."

I had a strong suspicion that Midgar was where we'd find her. There were two labs there. My chick's old lab in the Shinra tower and the Deepground labs. I was betting on the Deepground lab. It was sufficiently up to date, had a good defensive position, and it hadn't been blown to pieces by an annoyed Weapon. During the Deepground fiasco, Chaos had been more interested in grinding Weis into a gooey paste than on doing any property damage. I wasn't going to share that with Rufus though. It kept him busy trying to guess, and anything that kept him distracted while he was fretting was a blessing straight from the Ancients.

I settled back into my slouched pose, gave up on getting any further rest, and contemplated just how I was going to dispose of Rufus. I had eliminated shallow graves or stuffing him under bushes and now enjoyed the thought of tying him up and dumping him on Tseng. I'm sure Tseng would appreciate having the president back to torment with his schedules.

I'd heard about those. Rufus had disguised it under a heavy layer of sophisticated wit, and nonchalance, but I heard the faint wisps of hurt, loneliness, and anger that hung around those urbane jokes and reminiscences.

I also finally put together why Rufus was now gracing me with his presence. Tseng, either through ignorance or hatred, had isolated Rufus to the point the kid was about to shatter. Rufus, contrary to his general snot ass attitude, liked people. He liked watching them, he liked talking to them, he liked contact. In a way, he was just like his old man. I'd guess that in a few years Rufus would buck at the reigns enough to hit the slums, rub shoulders with whatever gutter trash would talk to him, and cruise around looking for a willing body to keep him warm. Tseng was blowing it, just as Jin had blown it thirty-some-odd years ago. He might be keeping his present workload manageable, or perhaps taking his anger out on what he considered an easy target, but in the long run, he'd be faced with the same nightmare I had dealt with: keeping a lonely, rebellious president from getting killed in a gutter brawl over a street corner whore.

If I didn't have my own worries, I'd take Tseng aside and explain a few things. Or maybe I wouldn't. A roving president might offer some rather interesting opportunities that could easily be exploited. If nothing else, Rufus would be easier to take out if he reverted to the budding nut-case he'd been before Sephiroth's temper tantrum. A lonely president would also be easier to sway and influence. He would, in his desperation for human contact, remove some of the worries that still plagued Avalanche and WRO. With a bit of handling, Rufus would become the staunchest of allies, defending the people who supplied him with the things he most desperately needed, simple human contact and acceptance.

Rufus would also, in probably just a few years, do a bit of housecleaning in his Administrative Research Department. Tseng, if he didn't do some damage control quickly, would find himself "retired." There was, underneath what I expected was a frustrated emotional attachment Rufus held for the man, an impressive amount of resentment in Shinra's young president. Love or lust could easily shift into loathing and hatred with startling suddenness if handled badly. Tseng was doing an admirable job at bungling and snubbing Rufus's feelings. It was really only a matter of time before Rufus turned on him. Reno and Rude would probably feel the reverberations depending on whose side they stayed loyal to. They would either find themselves "retired" or cautiously allowed to stay. Reno though would never see his promotion to Turk Leader.

I wondered just how long it would take for the redhead to realize that he'd been sucking up to the wrong person. Rufus was now barely holding onto tolerance level for the man. One more day of Reno yes-bossing him while making snide comments he didn't think Rufus could hear and he'd find just how little President Shinra cared for his continued well being. That was if he survived the experience, which I strongly doubted. Rufus's mask tended to waver when talking about the Turk, showing hints of disgust and annoyance. That the mask would waver was a huge indication of the strength and depth of those feelings.

I'd bet that in a few months, Rufus would have a hiring spree for the Turks. Once the new Turks had a little experience, Tseng, Reno, and Rude would have some stressful moments. I'd already been scouted out by the president, and I'd bet others would find themselves being subtly interviewed. I could guess some of the likely candidates: police officers, WRO commanders, some Wutaian military, and perhaps some Avalanche members. He could also hire from the slums, an old favorite recruiting paradise. Any kid that managed to survive past his mid-teens was often smart enough, deadly enough, and desperate enough to escape that they generally were willing to sell themselves body and soul for the life of a Turk.

Rufus fussed a bit more as the ship swayed, bumping into the dock. We'd have to make an appearance soon to the commanding officer so he could order us off the ship. I was planning on a bit of eager bumbling, probably with the ship's ropes, with Rufus adding a chorus of uselessly unhelpful advice.

_Why bother with the kid, you're pretty good at being useless all by yourself._

I was on my feet in a millisecond. _Chaos._

_Miss me?_

"What's wrong?" Rufus was on his feet looking around suspiciously at the boxes.

"Chaos." I could feel it. It wasn't like before. It wasn't a part of me, but it was here, close.

I headed up the stairs. I didn't care if they noticed me or not. If Lucrecia had managed to summon Chaos again, a little thing like the captain of a squad of WRO soldiers, was the least of my worries. With Chaos, she could sweep Junon into the sea with hardly a flick of her hand. The City of the Ancients would become a tomb. Wutai would go from a sleepy, forgotten island to a charnel house in a matter of hours with the advent of Chaos on its shores.

The commanding officer was waving his arms, directing his more competent crew to unload valuable cargo. He paused in his yelling to glare at Rufus and me as we swept past. "Get your asses back below. You're…"

I didn't bother with the gang plank. I just caught Rufus around the waist and leapt to the dock. The commander gabbled something behind us, but I didn't care. That voice…I could feel Chaos…there to the left, up towards the main city.

"That's going to get back to Tseng." Rufus muttered. "And how about the birds?"

"Chaos is here." I sprinted towards the lift up. "This city might not exist very long."

The guard on duty, as usual was more interested in lining his pockets than providing security. A few hundred gil later, we were striding through the ugly, industrialized streets towards the slum district. Everything seemed peaceful enough. People were walking calming about, doing their errands, and bustling in and out of buildings with the usual expressions of everyday life: boredom, anxiety, preoccupation.

The feeling of the entity kept me moving forward. It felt like an ache under my breastbone, dull but insistent, pulling me and repelling me at the same time. What I would do when I found it, I didn't know. Alone, I was no match for Chaos. I still possessed the proto-materia though, which might give me some kind of edge. I wasn't going to delude myself that I could take it by surprise. Chaos knew I was heading towards it.

_I'm a he. Male with male like parts…remember, or has your brain atrophied, Valentine?_

Apparently he could also still invade my thoughts. I growled back and hurried through a few back allies, focusing on where that presence was. The streets were getting shabbier. The people acted more furtively and kids left graffiti scrawls on buildings the same way dog's pissed on corners. The shops were less wholesome and the customers slunk in and out the doors, casting hasty glances around before darting off to a safer location.

It was close. I went down a narrow alley that was crowded with signs in Wutaian: a small bar, a woman selling cheap fried food, a shabby beauty parlor that was an obvious front for a whore house, a dilapidated antique shop with broken windows that where badly patched with cardboard. Outside a house that had a faded sign for an apothecary, a young man slumped against a wall smoking and watching the scuttling movements of what few pedestrians still lingered in this dim place. The feeling of Chaos was coming from him.

As I paused to confirm the feeling, he turned and looked at me.

Veld.

No way.

No possible way.

It had to be Veld's kid.

But no kid matched his father that closely.

He stood like Veld. He held his cigarette like Veld. The flick of the eyes, the way his lips twitched into a sarcastic smile as if the world had told a stupid joke, the way he tipped his head were all Veld. His face was also Veld's, younger than I'd seen it, but…

_Stop standing there dithering, asshole. So it's Veld. Get over it. We've got work to do._

"So, you've gotta be Valentine, V.. Nice to meetcha'" Veld walked over with no recognition in his eyes. "Read a lot about you."

Rufus stepped around me. "And you are?"

I reached out and pulled Rufus out of the way of the kick Veld aimed at his balls. Veld was in a dangerous mood. I could tell by the way he exhaled the smoke from his cigarette. He was edgy, tired, and more than willing to provoke a fight to work out the excess energy that was fraying his nerves. Rufus with his snobby, rich kid voice was a perfect target.

"Veld." I answered Rufus's question and shoved him behind me. "He also has Chaos."

"Yeah. Goodie for me. Want him back?" Veld sauntered up to me, still eyeing Rufus, hoping the kid would do something to tick him off enough to excuse an all out assault.

"What do you want?" I watched him carefully, reading the flicks of his fingers, the way his shoulders moved, and his eyes.

Veld. I thought...

It was her. She did this. She must have grabbed him in Bone Village and used him for her sick, twisted experiments. The Planet only knew what she'd done to him, but he wasn't acting like her stooge. His movements were too free and relaxed. Veld, when working, had a certain tenseness about him. This kid-like version of him lacked it. Oh, he was edgy and yes, in a way tense, but it didn't carry into his backbone and his mouth like it did when he was on the job.

_He's clean. The bitch forgot that I can cancel out her meds._

I pondered just how much Chaos's opinion really was worth as I listened.

"Well, getting this asshole," he rapped his head with his knuckles lightly, "out of my head would be nice, but I'll settle for a fifth of whiskey and another pack of smokes."

Definitely Veld. I couldn't help the smile I felt try to take hold of my face. "I thought you were dead, old man."

He looked puzzled for a second then nodded. "So it was true. I did know you."

"Valentine." A deeper voice called from the door of the apothecary. Sephiroth stood there looking around the alley. "Get in here. I don't want us spotted."

I nodded. I wanted to take this off the street, too. I pulled a quiet, and amused Rufus after me into the shop, making sure that I stayed between him and Veld. The shop was dusty and half the displays were broken as I followed Sephiroth into the back. Rufus's nose twitched snobbishly for an instant, but his trip through the Western Continent had knocked a lot of prissiness out of him. Veld brought up the rear smirking.

"I found Father." Sephiroth nodded up the stairs that edged up the side of the hall. "He was in Midgar."

I didn't care about Veld anymore. If he wanted to take Rufus apart to sooth his nerves, he had my blessing. I could deal with Chaos and him later if they caused problems if Sephiroth didn't take them out first. I'd talk to Sephiroth later. All that was important was my chick. I was on the upstairs landing in a second. It only took a fraction of a second to locate him in a room with an old man sitting next to him mixing herbs.

The old man barely acknowledged me as I came in and knelt next to the bed. My poor hatchling. He had lost far too much weight. His skin was pale with a grayish tinge to it, and his already deep set eyes seemed to have shrunk back into their sockets. He barely dented the starchy white sheets he lay under.

Damn her for doing this to him.

"Hojo, I'm here." I stroked his hair, startled to feel how brittle it had become. "I'm here. You're safe now."

The old man glanced over at me. "He sick. Out of balance. Need sleep. You no wake him."

I wondered if the broken grammar was real or a well polished act. It didn't matter. He was right, my chick needed his rest.

I stroked my hand through Hojo's hair, worrying. "Sleep, love, sleep. I'll be here when you wake up."

His eyes blearily opened and blinked at me, and a smile flickered around his lips. "Found you."

* * *

Review please. Thank you for those reviews that are unsigned. I appreciate them, even if I can't respond to them.


	18. Could Anything Be Finer?

Once a Man

Chapter 18: Could Anything Be Finer?

**James**

"Two."

Cards were tossed casually onto the table as Rufus smirked across at James. Sephiroth sipped his whiskey and glowered at his hand. The shop keeper, Wencheng, muttered and slapped his cards down in disgust.

James dealt the two requested cards to Rufus then returned to his own hand. It wasn't bad, three aces, but he was betting that Sephiroth had four of a kind, maybe a full house. Wencheng hadn't won a hand in six rounds, and by the sour look on the old man's face James doubted he'd be winning this one either. Rufus though was a bit of a wild card. The kid had a way of slipping in a straight now and then. He'd need to be watched.

"Okay, shall we open?"

It had been two weeks since Valentine and the kid had shown up outside the shop. While Valentine had spent nearly every minute nursing Hojo, he'd gotten to know the kid. For a snobby rich boy, Rufus was one of the most tough ass card players he'd met. He wasn't bad in a fight either. He'd found that out the first day. The kid had real potential. He knew how to fight dirty. He also didn't clean up too bad. Without the scruffy beard and contacts, he looked down right pretty, which gave James all sorts of opportunities to enjoy himself needling him.

"I fold." Wenchang grumbled giving his abandoned cards a disdainful hrumph.

"Three." Sephiroth tossed down his markers.

None of them, not even the old man, had any gil to spare, so they played for chores. The ones with the most markers could "buy" their way out of the more disgusting chores while the less lucky cleaned the toilets. Watching pretty boy scrub out the old graying toilet in the back last week had been one of the highlights of James's short memory. This week it looked like Wencheng would be scrubbing while the kid did dishes, Sephiroth cooked, and he swept floors. Valentine had standing dibs on the laundry, having nearly had meltdown when he realized that the zombie's sheets weren't as clean as they apparently should have been.

James kept his eyes on his cards, frowning to himself as he played.

Valentine.

He was starting to remember. It was little things, like the name of his first chocobo, Dilly. The name James, that the bitch had stuck on him, was starting to sound phony too. Oddly, it didn't bother him too much being called by another name. He just didn't like to hear it coming out of Valentine's mouth. It irritated the hell out of him every time Valentine said it, and by the expression on the asshole's face, he knew it was bugging him. Yet, he didn't do anything to stop it. If pretty boy gave him the same sly smirk, he'd have torn his balls off, sautéed them with garlic, and shoved them down his throat. With Valentine, he just felt wound up and tense, as if something, somewhere inside him was pushing to get out to answer that smirk.

"Fuck." The kid grumbled as the hands fanned out on the table.

Sephiroth gathered the cards up as James made a small notation on the tally sheet. "Just remember not to scrub the frying pans so much this time."

"Shut up and deal." The kid knocked back a shot of whiskey and poured everyone another round.

Valentine wandered through the room carrying a tray with food on it. He glanced over at them uninterestedly. He didn't join them very much, another irritation in James's mind. It seemed very wrong that there was a poker game and Valentine wasn't sitting across the table from him. Instead of giving him that tense pushing feeling, it made him somehow jittery during the game, as if he somehow expected something bad to happen because Valentine wasn't there slumping in the chair, sipping whiskey, and tapping his cards lazily against the table.

"Want to be dealt in? Dusting still needs to be done." James taunted hoping that Valentine would sit down and play. He wanted –needed- him to come sit for a round, just one round.

Valentine didn't even try to rise to that bait. He just turned and walked up the stairs without saying anything, which pissed James off more. He hated being dismissed so thoroughly.

He growled and stood. "I'm out."

He had enough points to ensure his prized position as shop sweeper and left the others to hash out the rest of the details. Maybe the pretty boy would make a comeback and be the cook, or better maybe Wengcheng would get in a few rounds and there would be another fun week of watching President Shinra down on his knees scrubbing the commode.

James followed Valentine upstairs to the zombie's room. Hojo was sitting up in bed looking perkier, but he hadn't gained much weight and he had developed a mild wheeze. Wengcheng had prescribed a tea with a mix of odd looking ingredients which seemed to please both Valentine and Sephiroth.

"Here," Valentine set the tray down on the bedside table, "you should try the soup. It's very good."

Actually, James thought the soup had been anemic and only differed from water by the tepid yellow color and the small tasteless vegetables that had drooped limply in the bowl. Still, considering the rations that most people were living off in Junon, he couldn't start bitching about it.

Hojo set the book he'd been reading down and gave Valentine a smile. In all the time he'd been in Lucrecia's care, not once had James seen him smile that happily. He was rather surprised that the zombie could smile like that, as if light and sunshine had come into the room for the first time in months.

"I just read the most remarkable thing." Hojo showed Valentine the book he'd been reading about Chocobo breeding. "It's the nuts. There has to be some kind of chemical in the nuts that rewrites a chocobo's genetic structure. Feed them one type of nut and you have a basic yellow, feed them another and you get a black, and yet another for a gold. There is of course breeding strategies, probably to maximize genetic alterations, but it's the nuts!"

Valentine nodded and handed the bowl of soup over. "You'll have to look into that when you have time."

"Just imagine what would happen if…"

James turned away, feeling uneasy.

_Just admit it. You're jealous._ Chaos chortled into his mind.

_Am not. What do I have to be jealous about?_

He was suddenly standing in an alley. Two men lay at his feet bleeding onto the dirty pavement. The smell of gun powder still hung heavy around him. Two more men were huddled together near a wall.

"Where the hell…"

"You wanted to know." He heard Chaos's voice next to him and turned to see a slender, very pale being with a crown of red spiked hair and glowing gold eyes. "This is it."

James glared at him then turned as the two against the wall moved.

They were both dressed in neat blue suites with neatly cropped hair. One was shorter than the other with auburn brown hair and a stockier build. The taller one had black hair and was leaning against the shorter man.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" The shorter one growled.

"Go straight two paces and turn left." The black haired one gasped, holding his side. "Then turn left and take ten paces."

"And then what the fuck are we going to do." The brown haired man stumbled forward two steps then looked around. "It's not like I can drive."

"That's me…" James stepped closer. "What the fuck…I look like I'm…"

"Blind." Chaos walked over to where the two were stumbling out of the alley. "It's part of your past. Valentine just took a bullet that would have killed you."

The black haired man hissed as they tripped over a crack in the pavement. "Okay, go left and walk. I'll tell you when to stop."

James trailed along after the two as they carefully made their way down the street. His other self jumping and fretting every step of the way as Valentine mumbled directions. The people on the street had disappeared, and James could see a few cautiously peer out from the edges of curtains, catch sight of the two ahead of him, and quickly disappear. What few cars passed, sped up as their drivers looked steadily at the road.

"Stop." Valentine muttered. "The car is to the right, two steps."

"Car? What the fuck are we going to do with a car?" The brunet snarled hauling his partner over to lean against the car. "You can't drive. What if someone comes? What if the police…"

"We don't exist right now." Valentine carefully looked at the wound in his side grimacing. Unlike the Valentine that James knew, this one even shot, had caramel colored skin. Instead of the creepy, glowing, red-gold eyes, this one's eyes were a light brown and normal. "That alley doesn't exist. We don't exist. Those two bastards don't exist either." He gave a soft, bitter laugh. "Ain't it grand to be a Turk."

"Yeah, just fucking peachy." His other self fished keys out of Valentine's pocket and unlocked the door.

"Help me around to the driver's seat." Valentine pulled himself away from the car. "I can drive."

"You can't even fuckin' stand!" The shorter man snarled. "Why the fuck didn't you let me take the hit?"

Valentine gave him a lopsided grin. "Because, you're my partner."

"Don't give me some bullshit…"

"Shut it, Veld. You're my partner. You always take care of your partner." Valentine started carefully walking around the car, leaning on it for support and leaving a smear of blood against the side. "Someday, you'll do the same for me, just as I'll probably do this again for you. Get over it already. We've got to get out of here."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." The young Veld stumbled after his partner and helped him into the driver's seat. "You didn't have to do this."

"Shut it, Veld, and get in." Valentine slumped into the driver's seat holding his side and waiting until Veld carefully made his way back around the car and got into the passenger side. Valentine started the car and pulled out into the street.

James stood on the sidewalk as the car left and headed off down the street. "That was a line of bullshit."

"Depends." Chaos was leaning back against a dirty tenement wall. "He kept you alive. You kept him alive. He loves Hojo, but…" The Weapon shrugged.

"But what?" James watched the car take a right turn and disappear. "He loves me more?" He snorted. "Don't even try to pull that shit with me."

"No. He doesn't love you." Chaos grinned. "You don't love your hand or your foot, but you'd be crippled without them."

"What the fuck do you mean?" James turned from watching a few timid souls venture out onto the street.

"I'm done being nice for the decade." Chaos grinned showing a row of uneven fangs. "Figure it out for yourself."

"Why you shit eating…" James stepped forward reaching for the Weapon.

"Veld."

The world went black.

"Veld!"

"Bring him over here."

When the light came back it was too bright, washing everything into a surreal buzzing white haze.

"Veld, wake up!"

_I'm awake._ James tried to get his mouth to work, but it had apparently gone on vacation.

"Did he hit his head?"

"I didn't see." Valentine sounded worried.

A hand touched his face and a careful finger pried open one eye. "His eyes are reacting normally."

_Leave my face alone. That's making my eyes go buggy._

Fingers delicately slid through his hair searching for an injury. He could feel soft sheets and blankets underneath his fingers. Someone had put him on a bed. From the voices, he could guess that the zombie had given up his place and he now had the honor of being there. Joy. Joy. Joy.

"Is it something she did? A delayed reaction?" Valentine's voice shaded towards anger, but the fingers stayed threaded through his hair.

_You always take care of your partner._

He was walking into a lab with a group of men. The place was filled with computer terminals and odd equipment. Worry and anger chewed at him as his instincts screamed at him that everything about this place was wrong. As he stepped into the center of the room, he scanned the area then looked up. Above on a scaffold a large tank of mako glowed. In it, a slender form floated limply. Its head was bowed down and he couldn't see its face, but the soft wave of black hair and the blue uniform sent a shaft of pure terror down his spine.

"Vince!" The name was torn out of his mouth as he leapt up the stairs of the scaffold.

He reached out to touch the tank, an order to get his partner out of it dying in his mouth. "Ah, fuck no."

He'd seen enough to recognize a mortal wound. He could even guess without an autopsy that it had hit Valentine's heart, taking out at least part of the aorta and maybe a major artery or two. His partner had probably died in seconds.

"Vince…oh fuck…Vince." He put his hand against the side of the tank, watching his partner float lifelessly in front of him.

All around, the world smashed to pieces around him soundlessly. He was standing in a room of people he didn't trust, in the middle of a dangerous situation, and he had no one watching his back. He'd go back to his job, in a building full of people who'd love to see him dead, and he'd have no back up. There would be no voice on the phone to mull over plans, no one sitting across from him as he drank himself shitfaced after a hard day, no one he could joke with, talk to, laugh with, make stupid bets with. If he went out into that cold dark world and got into trouble, no one would come for him, no one would make the bastards pay, no one would even do more than fill out a form and file it away. He had fucked up. He'd left his partner and now his partner was dead. He was alone.

"Vince...don't…"

"Veld, wake up."

"Vince…"

"Open your eyes."

He blinked and found himself laying on a bed with Valentine and Hojo leaning over him. The zombie was sitting on one edge of the bed, peering at him intently. Valentine sat on the other side looking at him. At the door, Rufus and Sephiroth were looking in at him. He frowned and turned to Valentine.

"You died." He muttered, feeling his tongue clumsily shape the words.

A hint of a smile ghosted around Valentine's lips. "Which time?"

"Ha. Ha. Very funny, Vince." He pulled himself up to sit, not surprised when he felt Valentine reach out to support him. "See if I give a shit if you get shot up again."

Valentine cocked his head to the side, watching him. He knew that look. He knew what thoughts were flickering behind those mako-tainted eyes. He could even guess what Valentine would do next, how he'd react if he moved.

_You don't love your hand or your foot._

"Heh." He swung his legs to sit on the side of the bed facing Valentine. He sat looking at his partner for a second. "Just in case you're wondering, next time lover boy there," he nodded his head slightly towards Hojo, "puts a bullet through you, you get the jerk in my head back."

_That's gratitude for you._

_Fuck off…oh, I forgot, you can't without me…too bad. It's got to be a bitch to have no sex for…how many millennia now?_

"You figured that out, did you?" Valentine didn't seem surprised, just amused. "How many years did it take you? Ten? Twenty?"

"It was an accident." Hojo mumbled. "I didn't mean…"

He knew before Valentine glanced over at his lover that he'd reach over to comfort the man. Valentine was almost ridiculously indulgent when it came to Hojo. Considering how he had treated half the datable population of Midgar, it was downright hilarious to see him get so cow-eyed over a clumsy lab coat. If he thought the women would get the joke and still care, he'd take pictures and send them each a copy.

Veld stood up, bracing himself for a second on Valentine's shoulder. Sephiroth arched a questioning eyebrow at him, while Rufus gave him a small smirk. He smirked back, feeling something tense and unhappy release itself. After all those years, he was back where he belonged. His partner was at his back and he had a president to keep safe while some scumbag bitch was trying to fuck with the world.

Could anything be finer?

**Cid**

Cid watched Reeve slump down the path leading from the new WRO office that had taken over the shell which led down to the underground city. The CEO looked as stressed and beaten down as he had just before his collapse. The tiny mechanical cat that trailed along after him seemed to be thinking the same thing, because even at this distance Cid could hear it telling its master he should lie down and rest a mite. Reeve however was ignoring the wise advice of his own creation, which caused the tiny toysaurus to fret even more.

"Ya should take a nap." Cait could be heard nearly wailing as he followed along tugging worriedly at his tail. "Ya know what the doc said."

Yeah, Reeve knew, so did most of Avalanche, but that didn't stop Reeve from ignoring the advice and someof the others from conveniently forgetting. Cid turned away before Reeve could spot him and headed down into the main part of the city. In the last few days, all pretense of niceness had ended between the Villagers and Avalanche. Not that Avalanche was even Avalanche anymore. Cid, Cloud, and Yuffie had all moved down into the main part of the city aligning themselves with the populace leaving Tifa, Nanaki, and an increasingly unhappy Reeve up in the "administrative" section as the last bastion of Avalanche.

Cid guessed that the break had been coming for awhile, but with demons showing up and the resurrection of Zack and Sephiroth, they'd been distracted. Now that they were all stuck together in the same place with nothing to keep them busy, everything was coming out. None of it was pretty either.

Cloud was more interested in Zack and Sephiroth than Tifa's needs and wants. Tifa, still remembering Sephiroth killing her father, was furious about his "betrayal" and felt that he was letting the team fall apart because he couldn't make good decisions, in other words, do things her way. Cloud had stood firm, siding with his fellow Soldiers, not even flinching when she pulled out his old promise of being her hero. Cid hadn't even realized Cloud knew the meaning of understatement, much less could use it effectively until the blond had told Tifa that after saving the world twice and her life more times than he could count, he felt he'd kept up his end of the bargain.

Yuffie wouldn't even talk to Tifa or Nanaki anymore, and what she did say before she turned completely away from them was that they had a lot of nerve accusing Cloud of betrayal when they betrayed Vinnie first. Nanaki had tried to defend himself on that charge by claiming he'd never harm his friend Vincent, but he hadn't been able to meet the angry, young ninja's eyes the entire time. Cid knew how he felt, but instead of digging in and trying to defend an un-defendable position, Cid accepted his share of the blame and sided with Yuffie.

Reeve tried to make peace, and still went back and forth between the two opposing sides daily trying to get things back to normal, but Reeve was wearing down. His health had never recovered and now with the split and the added stresses of trying to deal with the situation down south while being stuck up north, he was teetering on the edge of another breakdown.

Cid jogged down the center street and across the divide, heading back towards the main part of the city. He, Shera, Yuffie, Cloud, and Zack had taken over Vincent's home while they rebuilt a few shattered shell homes nearby. The rest of the inhabitants of the area gave them a semi-warm welcome, which didn't extend to chocobos, boats, or any type of fuel, but did extend to helping them rebuild the houses and loads of food, coffee, and neighborly calls of hello.

Cloud and Zack were perched on ladders putting the final touches on the exterior of one of the houses as Cid passed. A group of men, mostly refugees from Edge, were inside laying the flooring, plastering the walls, and roughing in the kitchen while Yuffie raked building debris away. Some of the former Bone Villagers were hauling rocks to build walls for gardens and tilling the ground.

"Hey, any news?" Zack called out waving.

"Don't think so. Reeve's on his way over" Cid paused. "He really looks like hell."

"He should come stay over here." Yuffie leaned against her dirt rake. "There's another house ruin over there we could fix up." She pointed to a sad pile of stones that had been nearly covered by weeds.

Cloud shook his head. "I don't think so. He thinks if he stays over there, he'll get Tifa to calm down."

Cid rubbed his nose, "Don't think that's happening, and even if it does, who the fuck cares." Cid grimaced. "I'm done with the whole Avalanche thing."

"He could stay over with you and Shera at Valentine's." Zack smoothed the plaster he'd been working on as he talked. "Cloud and I could stay over here and he could take the guest room."

"I wanted the guest room." Yuffie pouted playfully. "I'm tired of sleeping on Vinnie's couch."

Cloud hummed thoughtfully, "Yeah, we could get our gear and stay over here tonight. We'd be able to get an early start on the loft tomorrow morning."

"We can get the floor done by this afternoon." One of the men, Cid thought his name was Derik, said as he came out to get more wood floor boards.

Another chimed, "Bath will probably be done by this evening if we can find that stupid wrench. Anyone seen it?"

There was some grumbling from inside as the men all started searching for the missing wrench. Zack pulled it out of a belt loop and looked guiltily around before tossing it to one of the men. He earned an exasperated look before the workers trooped back in to finish the plumbing.

"Okay, now how are we going to convince him." Yuffie grinned.

"Convince who?"

Reeve stood a few paces away, panting for breath, leaning against a neighbor's stone fence. Cait was chewing on his tail and waving his small paws wildly at his maker, doing a pantomime of distress and worry.

"You don't have to tell the cat to shut up." Cid turned to Reeve. "It's obvious. You look like shit."

"You need to rest." Yuffie dropped her rake and came over to stand next to Cid. "Why don't you come stay with Cid and Shera."

"I have things to do." Reeve wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "I can't just take a break."

"Reeve…" Cloud jumped down from his ladder. "You can take a break. We can handle it."

"Look Tifa wants you to come back." Reeve straightened up looking at Cloud and still wheezing slightly. "She says it's all a mistake and if you come back the two of you can work it out."

"Just the two of them." Cid frowned. "The rest of us can go fuck ourselves, right?"

"It's progress." Reeve waved a hand towards the other part of the city. "She's not cursing or yelling anymore. Nanaki is considering going over to Icicle. He says he's had enough and just wants quiet."

"He's got a point." Cloud nodded to Cid. "This isn't about me and her. This is about us. All of us."

Reeve sighed. "I know, but it's progress."

"Forget it." Cid stepped over to Reeve. "You put me in charge of WRO while you're not feeling good, and as far as I'm concerned, you're still fucked up. Come stay with me and Shera. It would make things a lot easier if you didn't have to haul your sick ass all the way over here every time we needed to talk."

"But…" Reeve looked around as if a good excuse was hiding behind him, but he only found his own creation glaring at him and pointing at his friends, gesturing for him to go with them. "I need to…"

"We could tie him to the guest bed." Zack murmured. "I'm sure Valentine has some handcuffs hidden someplace."

Yuffie gave him a warning look.

"Hey! He was a Turk. Don't Turks have handcuffs and stuff?" Zack grinned innocently.

"It's settled." Cloud nodded as if they had finished a long debate and headed back up his ladder. "Reeve, you stay with Cid, Shera, and Yuffie. Zack and I will move in here tonight."

"B..b…but…" Reeve stuttered as Cid grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him along towards Vincent's house. "I left my…"

"Cait, go get Reeve's shit." Cid didn't pause.

"Right'o!" The little toysaurus zipped off, looking relieved.

"Wait…I never said…"

"I bet Vinnie kept the cuffs in the bedside stand."

"Hey, and you complained about me."

**Tseng**

"Sir, the Confederated Alliance of Aqua-Protein Resources wants to discuss the acquisition of terra-based storage facilities." The perky brunet secretary he had hired in a fit of masochistic desperation followed him like a little chick and prattled memos to him.

"You mean the fishermen want more warehouses." Tseng shook his head. "When I see a demonstratable need for further storage, I'll look into it. As it is, their yields have been steadily decreasing. If it continues, I will probably reallocate the warehouses they are using now."

It was amazing what sleeping for less than two hours a night could do for one's ability to keep up on the latest facts. He tried not to think just how desperate he'd become that the fishing industry output was now considered desirable reading.

"As you wish sir." She quickly jotted a note in her steno book. After the first day, she had begun to wear a messenger bag bulging with steno books, pens, pencils, date books, tape recorders, and other necessities. She'd probably upgrade to a handheld computer by next week.

"The mayor of Costa del Sol wants to remind you that he's still waiting on your approval for reallocating the funds from civic programs." She nearly ran into a custodian that was cleaning a burn mark out of the executive floor's carpet.

"I haven't received verification that he is the mayor of Costa del Sol." Tseng waved his hand dismissively.

They were at the door to Rufus's office. Tseng refused to call it his office. It was Rufus's, and once he had the president back, he intended to lock Rufus in it. He was already eyeing suitably plush cell doors and window bars. Some of the new plastic security doors also looked promising. He particularly liked the full sized double door that was Plexiglas. It would give him the ability to check on Rufus as he walked past.

Reno was slumped against the side of the door, looking exhausted. His second in command had been bumped up to functioning Leader when he had received his own promotion to the presidential seat. It was like divine retribution that the red head now had to suffer the same daily annoyances that he had once inflicted on Tseng. The secretary retreated to her own desk and Tseng entered Rufus's office with Reno on his heels.

"Got a lead on Valentine." Reno collapsed into one of the plush white chairs that sat in front of Rufus's desk. "Don't like what I heard though."

Tseng sat in a matching chair, still not feeling comfortable on the other side of the desk. "Explain."

"A WRO captain came back from Costa del Sol a few weeks ago." Reno stretched out in the chair. "Nothing out of the ordinary, except a pair of recruits nearly flattened some of their fellows with a fork lift. He didn't think much of it, and assigned them a babysitting job down in the hold. When they got to Junon, suddenly one of them comes up on deck and takes a flying leap from the ship to the dock and zips out of there carrying his companion. With all the Soldier-boys up in the north, that only leaves Valentine that can take a leap like that."

"Hmmm." Tseng steepled his fingers, tapping them against his lips. "What of the companion?"

"Just a general description: brown hair, brown eyes, short beard, young, but that was also the description the guy gave of Valentine, except for the beard." Reno yawned and stretched farther. "Could have been Reeve, except for the young part."

"A disguise." Tseng nodded. "Anything else?"

"Not much. The captain didn't want to try to explain flying recruits, so he didn't report anything. By the time I got wind of it, the trail was dead. Most I got was the guy manning the elevator might have seen people matching their description, but he couldn't be sure since a lot of WRO personnel use that elevator." Reno reached in a pocket and pulled out a picture handing it to Tseng. "I did get that off a security camera. It was taken about the correct time if they did go up the elevator, but…"

Tseng looked at the picture. It was grainy and both people had their heads bowed down. All he could make out was that one was shorter than the other.

"Anything else?" Tseng flicked the photo to the desk top.

"Nope." Reno looked like he was about to fall asleep. "I don't like it though. Valentine likes to keep himself hidden. Why break cover like that? He had to know it would get back to us sooner or later."

"Something spooked him." Tseng frowned against his fingers contemplating what could have made Valentine show himself. "Keep an eye open for him and his companion, but don't shift anyone from their present duties. Anything on Rufus?"

Reno shook his head.

"Okay," Tseng got up and walked around the desk to check his messages. "See what our contacts in WRO have to say about this incident, also check the sentries around the city for any unusual activity."

Reno, groaning, dragged himself to his feet. "Anything else."

"Board meeting at four, be there with the department budget." Tseng felt a happy tingle of joy at Reno's moan.

The red head pulled himself slowly to his feet and dragged himself out the door. Tseng waited until the door was closed before he allowed himself a smirk.

"See how much fun that is." A voice snickered from behind him.

Tseng whipped around, his hand on his gun, only to find himself slammed face first onto the desk. He kicked backwards, hitting air.

"Come on now, I taught you better than that." The voice sounded disgusted. "You're pinned to a desk by an unknown entity. What do you do?"

_Not get pinned in the first place._ Tseng hissed at himself. He tried to twist out from under the hands that were holding him, feeling the other person's weight against his back.

"Hopeless."

And he was released.

"All that time and you still act like a dumb ass recruit."

Tseng leapt away, putting himself into a clear space. His one of his guns was laying on the floor at his assailant's feet, so he had to rely on his reflexes until he could unsheathe one of his knives or get to the gun strapped to his ankle. His attacker though just stood shaking his head.

"Come on, kid. You should have had that gun in your hand already and what about the desk? Hmmm?" His attacker patted the desk. "Didn't I teach you anything about covering your ass?"

His assailant was some punk kid with short brown hair and an attitude. Tseng didn't know who that kid thought he was, but he was going to make sure to get a thorough autopsy on him afterwards.

Tseng frowned at him, "I don't know you."

The attacker grinned, "Sure you do. Just add about forty years onto me and who do you have?"

"A decomposed corpse." Tseng got the knife in his hand and feinted to the right, hoping to draw the kid off so he could get an opening to the left.

The kid only sighed, batted the knife out of his hand, grabbed him by the back of his neck, and shoved his head down to meet his upcoming knee. The world exploded into white stars.

"You forgot damn near everything I taught you, didn't you."

Tseng lay on the floor stunned. His assailant reached over and relieved him of his gun and other weapons. He heard them all clunk onto the desk.

"I told you not to rely on a dumbass attitude and good reflexes, but did you listen." The kid pushed Rufus's chair back and sat down. "No. Dumb kid. Doesn't wear body armor because it wrinkles his prissy suits and doesn't want to get his hands dirty with practicing hand to hand."

Tseng froze. _No. Impossible._

"You're fucking lucky no one has actually tried to take you down." The gun that had been laying on the carpet was scooped up. "You can't rely on reputation alone, kid. You have to back it up with something and a nicely pressed suit isn't going to be worth shit if someone really wants to fuck with you."

_Absolutely impossible._

"Just how long are you going to lie there being cuddly with the floor?" The kid, who could not possibly be who Tseng had a slightly horrified idea it might be, was laughing at him.

Tseng rolled to the side, trying to pretend he was ready for an attack. His head spun dizzily, but he managed to put some distance between himself and…

Same eyes.

Same smirk.

Same lazy, predatory slouch.

Same, same, same. Only forty years younger.

"What happened to you?" Tseng sat back on the floor rubbing his jaw and plotting how to deal with the intruder. He still wasn't convinced it was…him…but if he kept him talking he could use the time to find a way to his weapons.

The pleased, smug look on the attacker's face, as if a pet had just managed to perform a new trick, nearly had Tseng reaching for the other's throat. That in itself, Tseng had to admit, was pretty strong proof that it was him. There was no one else on the planet that could annoy him faster than him. Not even Reno on his worst days.

"Oh, you know, the same old, same old." The kid shifted, settling into the chair in the same way HE had once shifted when he was settling down to have a fun time stamping on Tseng's ego and grinding it into the carpet. "Attacked by demons saving your worthless ass, experimented on by a crazy bitch. Nothing new."

"No. You can't be…" Tseng shifted only to find Ve…the kid only grinned wider. His move was already anticipated and looked forward to. Just like…

"Play time later, kid." He picked up one of Tseng's knives and tossed it casually into the wall. "You have work to do."

"I don't need you to…"

"Shut it, Tseng. You've blown it. Rufus is MIA, you have all of two Turks at your disposal, an army of demons is going to wipe this city off the map, and you have nothing." He sent another knife sailing at the wall. "Time to get your ass in gear and stop moping about."

"I am not moping." Tseng hated the trace of a whine that leaked into his voice. Just more proof that it was him. There wasn't another person on the Planet that could make him sound like that. No one. Nor could anyone else make him want to go drowned himself in the nearest toilet so quickly.

"Sephiroth found her base. It's in the old Deepground labs." He tossed a third knife. "We're going to go after her. You're invited."

"I have to find…"

"He's fine." He threw the last of Tseng's knives and gave a small grin at the perfect pattern he had made on the wall. "Sephiroth is going to gather whoever he can from the north. We'll be meeting him in three days in Kalm."

"And I should believe you because…" Tseng slowly, cautiously stood up, eyeing his attacker.

His assailant nodded, "You haven't changed." The grin became wider. "I tell you what, why don't we start at the beginning." The pleased purr that came into his voice made Tseng's stomach sink. "Now, in the beginning…" He, who could not possibly be him, looked downright gleeful. "You were a snot nosed brat when you first tried to enlist in the Turks, and I kicked you ass right back into the gutter you had just crawled out from…"

Tseng listened in stunned horror as his attacker, with a huge smile on his nineteen year old face, started at the beginning and listed every fault, error, mistake, small goof, misdeed, and each embarrassing fumble he had ever committed. It was an impressive list, including many things he had prayed Veld would never find out about, and it was given with generous commentary on his complete idiocy.

It was him.

Damn.

Please review!


	19. Interruptions

AN: I had a terrible time writing this chapter. Every time I tried, Hojo would amble off to trim Vincent's hair, or decide to comment on furniture. I finally had to destroy Kalm, take his scissors away from him, and he STILL misbehaved. I did my best, but Hojo took over. If this chapter sucks, it's his fault :P If anyone would like to be my beta, please contact me. I really need one and would happily worship you :)

**Now a Monster**

**Chapter 19: Interruptions**

* * *

Kalm had definitely seen better days. The quaint half timbered buildings seemed like small children huddled together in horror. Their doors hung open in shock. Their windows thrown wide in disbelief. The pavement cried in streams of rain, the water dripping down the ruins of crumpled fountains and broken buildings that hadn't survived.

I hated seeing the wreckage. I had often come to Kalm to relax. It's old fashion charm, while not an amazing cure all, could often make me feel a little less frantic. It had always seemed like one of those fairytale villages and if I just waited some kind hearted old lady would wander past, offer me my heart's truest wish, and all would be perfect again.

Reality, I know, has no kind hearted old ladies granting wishes. The only old lady I knew that granted wishes was my old flame Bettina and it was only granted if it could be cooked for an hour in a casserole dish. Not that I wouldn't have gleefully thrown myself on my knees because after weeks of eating the results of my son's war with the kitchen –which I think could be listed as one of the few battles he ever lost- I would have crawled across the Northern Continent for her chocobo casserole. I just had always hoped for bigger things.

Vincent, with a bit of snipping from Rufus and Veld, had decided to make base in an abandoned apartment building on the western edge of the city. The neighborhood was mostly intact. The school across the street had some broken windows, and a few houses had doors ripped off. Abandoned vehicles were relatively rare with only a couple sitting forlornly in front of equally abandoned houses. The apartments themselves were probably run down to begin with, though the luxurious red carpet and brocade wallpaper in the lobby tried to make it appear grander. All the apartments had been thoroughly ransacked by looters leaving us with only their leavings and a huge mess.

"Hey!" Veld called from the back of the building. "Try it now."

"Still nothing." Rufus shouted back.

"Fuckin'…" Veld's voice trailed off.

Vincent sitting on the front step of the apartment building glanced over towards them a second then went back to contemplating the school's playground. He'd been watching it for a few hours and I still hadn't figured out what was so amazing about it. It was rather large. It had a few scraggly trees that were bravely surviving despite the massive amounts of romantic hearts and arrows that had been carved into their trunks. The grass was still green and after months of no mowing, long enough to wave pleasantly in a passing wind. I would have guessed that he was appreciating nature or perhaps contemplating the inherent impermanence of material possessions, but he kept muttering numbers under his breath. Figuring he'd share his thoughts later, I had decided to ignore him and spent my time scribbling notes and figures on a pad of paper that I had scavenged from under a pile of sodden school supplies from across the street.

"Try it now!" Veld called.

The sound of thumping and then a gush of water heralded his success even before Rufus called back to his…Turk?...ex-Turk?..retired, rebellious Turk? I contemplated the relationship as I calculated the exact head count of how many demons my dear, insane ex-wife had at her disposal.

"Okay, let's try the gas line." Veld came around the corner of the building wiping his hands on the thighs of his jeans. "I checked out the main lines and the propane tank out back. We might get lucky."

Rufus, emerging from what we believed to be the manager's apartment, nodded. "Sounds good."

I had no illusions about their deciding to help out the less fortunate or thinking of the benefit of the group. They both had declared their intentions of having a hot shower and a good meal while we waited for Sephiroth and Rufus's Turks to make their appearance. They had given up on the electricity early on, which annoyed Rufus. I supposed it irked him that as president of Shinra Electric, he couldn't get electrical service when he wanted it. They had ironically tried to get Vincent to make base in a rather odd looking solar powered home, but were both ignored. Eventually, they had accepted this building because of the huge propane tanks in the back and the functioning heating system.

"One thousand nine hundred twenty three." Vincent muttered watching the grass blow in the soft wind. He seemed pleased with the number and then turned his attention to looking over the houses lining the street, mumbling more numbers.

I made a few jots on my paper while behind us there was a terrific whooomp sound then a flurry of yells, growls, curses, and rattling around. As I had suspected, there really was no way my beloved ex-wife could have summoned thousands and thousands of demons. I had just been too distracted by the reports and made a basic blunder. I tried to get my facts to bend around my theory instead of my theory being shaped by the facts. If a junior scientist had presented my own bumbled results to me, I would have fired him for incompetence. If facts do not conform to the theory, than there is something wrong with the theory, not the facts. The facts were simple. There was no way that she could summon that many demons. If she somehow managed to open some kind of portal between the world of demons –if there even was such a thing- and this realm, there was no way she could control them much less make them into an army. Therefore, she had to have done something else.

"Three hundred and fourteen." Vincent mumbled. "Two thousand two hundred and thirty seven. Forty nine thousand six hundred and twelve."

"Okay, we've got the gas going." Veld thumped down next to Vincent nursing a small burn on his finger. "We'll have hot water in a couple of hours."

"Ninety six thousand, seven hundred and seventy two." Vincent hummed to himself a little while as Veld took out a cigarette and started casually smoking.

"What time is your kid getting back?" Veld watched the sky overhead still puffing.

Vincent mumbled another string of numbers, so I answered. "Today or tonight."

"Hmph." Veld frowned. "I suppose it would be too much to ask that they bring supplies."

Vincent made a small grumble and stood up, walking to the edge of the cracked sidewalk to look up and down the street. I shrugged at Veld and went back to listing my facts and seeing if my new theory was sound. It would have helped if I had that file I had back in the shell house, but I felt reasonably confident that I could get by without it. Rufus came out frowning at his shirt sleeve that had been burned and after frowning at the lack of luxurious furniture settled on the steps too.

"There should be a market around here." Rufus grimaced as part of his shirt fell in ashes to the stone steps. "We need to restock."

That was certain. We hadn't been well supplied leaving Junon. There just were no supplies to go around. Food rationing had started the day before we left, and the black market hadn't had time to set up an efficient network. The best we'd been able to do was to "borrow" a few worn out chocobos that had been destined to become honored dinner guests in their near future and the barest minimum of supplies. Even the short trip to Kalm had involved a lot of scrounging and living off the land. I for one was tired of salads made of cowslip.

As Veld and Rufus finished their supply discussion then left, Vincent came over and snitched a piece of paper from me and one of my extra pencils. He went back to staring at the school. I guessed he finally figured out whatever equation he had been working on and wanted it written out. I again went back to my theory, but the gods of beleaguered scientists were still frowning on me.

"You need to go upstairs." Vincent had stuffed the paper into a pocket and was now standing in front of me.

I looked around seeing nothing out of the ordinary except that Kalm was a deserted wreck. "I'm trying to get this done." I tapped my pencil against my paper. "Can it wait?"

He grumbled at me but didn't protest as I went back to my calculations of demon summoning. It was the retention that was bothering me. Most demons, once summoned, only stay until one task is completed. This is usually a very short period of time, a few minutes to a half hour at most. However, I have never seen this tested and only had anecdotal stories to work from. These were interesting but how could I make even adequate calculations based on stories of my-friend's-brother-once-said? Could she have summoned them, rested, and then summoned more? It would take her months, if not years, to summon an army.

"It's getting late." Vincent was fussing.

Vincent fusses quietly when he bothers to do it. Generally, his fussing involves standing silently over someone like a cloud of doom. If the poor, unlucky soul doesn't cave into his silent fussing, he takes it a step farther, he makes short, one sentence pronouncements intended to prod said soul into doing what he wants. If that unlucky one still ignores the silent fuss, he takes more direct action, which is precisely what happened to me next.

"Inside." He picked me up –damn my weight loss- and I was carried inside like a sack of groceries.

I twisted free as soon as we got into the apartment and went to find a safe – read indoor- spot where I might have a few moments of quiet to contemplate such apparently inconsequential things like how to save the Planet from hoards of demons. I privately admitted to myself it was nicer inside. The heat had snapped on and made the rooms comfortable. Veld, Rufus, and Vincent had scavenged together some furniture to make a cozy little hideout away from hideout with mismatched recliners, a sofa, a few beaten up end tables, some schlocky lamps, and beaten up beds.

If you ever need decorating advice, don't go to Turks. If it doesn't explode or collapse under them, they think it's fine. If it does explode or collapse, they'll probably still use it after making sure the destruction was a onetime event.

Where had I been…oh, yes… years, army…

"You need to eat something." Vincent was fussing still.

I pointed in a random direction. "Go! Just go! I need to concentrate!"

I got a bowl of canned soup plunked down in front of me on the scuffed coffee table. Saving the world was not as important as my nutritional habits it seemed. I found this rather funny. I had spent years trying to fatten up my slender Turk. I had plotted, cooked, pleaded, nagged, and occasionally demanded that he eat more only to be told 'I'm not hungry' or even had weaponry pointed at me for my caring efforts. I fretted every time I got a look at just how thin Vincent was. I worried over how his hip bones were so prominent. I despaired when I saw his poor delicate wrists or his frail ankles. I wanted to cry over the meager flesh that covered his ribs.

And he was fussing at me to eat.

"You first." I pushed the bowl back towards him.

"You've been sick." He pushed it back.

"I'm busy. You eat, then I'll eat." I accepted the bowl-of-soup-pushing war we started and returned the volley.

"You'll think better if you eat first." The soup came back.

"I ate thirty minutes ago." I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him and the soup bowl got slid in his direction. "When did you last eat?"

He sidestepped the attack. "You ate a candy bar. You need more than that." So spoke the man who used to consider candy bars nutritious as he pushed the soup towards me.

"It had nuts." I used his own defense against him returning the soup.

"Nuts do not make a candy bar food." He used my old counter attack against me and the soup was mine again.

"And thus your meal this morning wasn't food." I had noticed him chewing on a candy bar when he should have been eating his delightful fire cooked rabbit. "You've missed breakfast, so eat this, and I'll eat later after I finish." I decided to end the war by not only pushing the soup back, but by standing up and walking away to find a quieter spot to figure out the minor detail of the demon army we would be facing in a day or so.

I got stopped by an arm snaking around my waist.

"You are being impossible." He even sighed to back it up.

I have to admit that I wanted to step back into him and see if I could get lucky. I hadn't received more than a few kisses and cuddles since I got back from my family reunion. I would have pitched my demon calculations into the trash if he'd agree to even a groping session on the couch. It didn't surprise me when instead of a passionate kiss, or a friendly fondle, I instead received the bowl of soup.

"Eat and I'll leave you alone."

Words to inspire a famine.

I accepted the damned stuff and sulked off, unloved and well fed, to the bedroom. I settled down on my side of our dingy little bed with the paper propped against my knees as I leaned back against the wall to sip my much sought after soup.

If she couldn't spend months…

"Anyone home?" I heard the dulcet sounds of Cid Highwind's voice call through the building.

"In here Cid." Vincent rustled around and opened the door.

I concentrated harder. She couldn't…

"Vinnie!" The ninja brat yelled. "We were worried!"

"Could I sit down?" A man's voice wheezed.

I stared at my paper hopelessly. _Demons…_

"We're ahead of schedule." Sephiroth's deep voice cut through the squeals of the ninja brat. "The boat Tseng sent caught a strong wind."

_Demons…_

"Hey, any food around here?" Zack Fair's voice called.

The ninja brat shrieked. "Smells like there might be some soup."

_Dem…_

"Reeve, you should try to rest." Cloud said.

"I should contact the commanders to see when their arrival will be." Reeve sounded weak.

"I'll do it." Cid bulled into the conversation. "You take it easy."

_De…_

"Is Father here?" Sephiroth asked.

_Concentrate._

_Concentrate._

"Well, look who's here." Veld chimed in with a snarky, sarcastic drawl.

_Concentrate! The Planet is in danger and all I can think of is…_

"Vinnie, do you have any sunscreen? I got burned!"

…_the Planet would prosper if I could invent a remote control to silence people… People would flock to me in worshipful thanks. Maybe an electrical pulse that targets the speech center of the brain…_

"Fried ninja." Veld sounded less than sympathetic. "You'd think the world's greatest ninja would remember sunscreen."

"Excuse me." Vincent sounded very polite, which shut Veld up at least.

Vincent in very polite mode is rather unpredictable. It means his patience is nearly gone and he's either contemplating doing something nasty to you or about to fall into silent brooding mode which of course led to intensive brooding mode. I figured this out long ago after mistaking very polite mode for worried mode and was rather surprised to find myself handcuffed to the toilet in the guest bath for three hours while Vincent went about sanitizing the entire apartment. To this day, I have no clue where he got a steam cleaner at four in the morning.

Unhappily for me, he came into the bedroom with his very polite mode still hanging around him like a cloak of doom. I gave him a small smile and sipped my soup obediently, while concentrating on not getting tied down, locked up, hung by my toes, or stuffed in a closet. He sat down on the bed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with an irritated finger. I was starting to guess this might degenerate into brooding mode. I could handle brooding mode, but he could also snap into nasty mode. I considered being brave and asking what the matter was, but decided to hide in my work. It was a strategy that had worked on plenty of occasions. I actually made some brilliant discoveries while avoiding Vincent in very polite mode like bioluminescent light bulbs. Shinra suppressed that little invention quickly since it would have cut into their customer base. I thought that was unfair, but Gast was still in control of the science department then. I also came up with the correct chemical formula for rocket fuel, which Cid Highwind never thanked me for.

_Now demons…_

"You can stop that." Vincent grumbled at me.

I looked up at him, still innocently sipping my soup.

He grumbled wordlessly a bit more then came over to lay down next to me. It looked like brooding mode was winning, which meant that my chances of getting laid were improving.

It always helps to keep your focus on the larger issues.

"What have you figured out?" He rolled onto his side and wormed his way to my side, burying his face against my shoulder.

"My original statement up in the City of the Ancients was correct. There is no way she could summon that many demons." I wiggled a bit so I could free my arm and caress along his back soothingly while putting my soup on the side table.

"But she did." Vincent sighed (translation: keep doing that.)

"Did she?" I noticed that his hair was getting long again. "I thought I was living in Nibelheim a few weeks ago."

He stiffened. "An illusion."

"Yes, but the problem is calculating just how many demons are actually in her army." I watched as he jerked up to sit stiff and attentive. "A skillfully used illusion is quite deadly."

He nodded and swung off the bed. I gave my own sigh as he started pacing. "She'd just need a few to destroy a city. The panic alone…"

He paced off to spread the joy to the babbling idiots that had flocked in the living room chattering about which apartments they were going to take over, where to scavenge for food, and other vitally important things. Silence met his pronouncement quickly followed by Mr. Highwind's cussing.

I figured that would keep them busy for awhile and settled happily into my calculations. If –and it was a big if- she could keep demons summoned for say three weeks, then it was quite possible that she could have a …

"Are you sure?" Sephiroth had stepped in to look at me suspiciously.

I rather resented that. I may have been completely insane for most of my life, but I was always certain about my final results before distributing them to the great unwashed... well nearly always certain. "I wouldn't have said anything if I wasn't sure."

He frowned and left.

…if she could keep them around for three weeks, it was quite possible for her to have…

"Impossible!" The ninja brat invaded my room waving her arms. "We saw them. You can't tell me they weren't there!"

Thankfully, she was hauled out by Cloud. I settled back to my calculations. I figured she could summon maybe…

Vincent stalked into the room and sat back on the bed with a huff (translation: boneheads). "I refuse to talk to them."

…twelve demons a day…

Sephiroth came in and locked the door behind him. "Those are your friends. You should go deal with them."

I desperately ignored them both. Twelve multiplied by twenty one is…

"Hey, don't leave me out here with them!" Zack whined pounding on the door.

Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose while Sephiroth dropped into a chair by the door giving it an evil look. I gave up on my calculations. They wouldn't do me much good since I was lacking vital data. Perhaps Reeve might be able to get me the data I needed. I had been out of the science game for a few years, so it was possible that someone might have researched the subject. Seeing that Chaos and Omega had chosen to get flamboyant during the whole Deepground idiocy, it was likely that some enterprising soul had chosen to look into the subject. All I had to do was make my way through the pack of jabbering idiots and get the poor man to contact his scientists (if they were still alive) and I might just end up with the information. Simple.

World destruction or wading through a pack of morons? The choices I am called on to make…

"When is Tseng going to arrive?" Vincent muttered between Zack's demands, Yuffie's yells, and Highwind's curses.

"It's been three days, hasn't it?" Our son glanced at the door. "You're thinking of making him in charge of them?"

"He couldn't handle them." I set my paper aside and picked up my soup. "He can't even handle the Turks he has."

Vincent nudged me. Turk problems belonged to the Turks. Son or not, Sephiroth was still a Soldier and excluded from their confidences. Tseng could be the worst blight on the Planet, but no Turk would share that information with any outsider. It wasn't uncommon for poor Turk leaders to die heroically. They would be sadly killed in action, all the Turks would swear vengeance on the killer, some poor sod that was already slated for grave filler would get spectacularly and publicly killed, the next leader would take over, and the matter would be settled. Seeing that there would be a rather large battle soon, Tseng might find himself suddenly left alone in the middle of a fight and die a tragic death. Then again, with the available alternatives: Reno, flighty and semi-incompetent; Rude, uncommunicative and dimwitted; Veld, snarky and now demon possessed, Rufus might have to deal with what he presently had.

Sephiroth gave a small snort of laughter. "Diversion, then?"

"Veld can handle the Turks." Vincent tried rubbing his temples. "Cloud can handle Avalanche. Tseng needs to handle recon. We don't have enough places to put troops."

"I'll see to it." Our son got to his feet. "It'll keep Zack busy and he knows what to look for."

He took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped out into the pandemonium. Vincent got up, locked the door, and then came back to lie on the bed, his forearm pressing across his eyes.

"You planned that." I finished the last of my soup and set it aside.

"Yes." He didn't look up at me. "If they have that much energy, they can look for places for WRO troops to sleep."

I edged down to lie next to him. "He'll figure that out you know."

"He already knows." He pulled me closer. "Why do you think he came in here? He needed space to think of a way to channel their energy. We don't have much time to waste. The troops will be here tomorrow morning."

And then the attack would begin. I didn't have much time.

"How much is twenty seven times twelve?" I decided to make him do a bit of work for me.

"Three hundred and twenty four. Why?" He lifted his arm and looked at me.

The data was still based on faulty reasoning, but it was something. "Just working out some calculations."

"Work out how to tell the difference between illusion and reality. We'll handle the rest." He put his arm back over his eyes.

I laid there with my head pillowed on his shoulder. "That's not too hard. Illusions have no heat signature."

He stiffened. "Heat signature?"

"Well, yes. Illusions are constructed by fooling your neural receptors. They have no true body so they give off no heat. Of course, she could be using the illusion of demons to mask ordinary soldiers, or even animals, but the true form would show." I waved my hand dismissively. "I'm more worried about how many true demons she…"

"You're a genius." He rolled enough to kiss me than was out the door before I could take advantage of the situation.

Abandoned, I propped myself up on my elbows and scowled at the door. "Yeah, a genius…"

* * *

Please review!


	20. Battle Fields

Now a Monster

Chapter 20: Battle Fields

* * *

**Tseng**

"Hey, don't blame me." Reno slouched next to Tseng as they walked down the wasted streets of Kalm.

Rude had gone ahead of them to lead the troops that Tseng had been able to cobble together from the remnants of Soldier and what few civilians that had volunteered quickly. Tseng had stayed back with Reno and a few hopeful recruits to…discuss… a few things.

"Reno, this is no time for games." Tseng waved a few of the less eager volunteers to go ahead to see if the streets remained clear. "Playing war games with the helicopters was out of line."

"You're the one that said they needed practice." Reno had his hands shoved deep into his pockets and muttered at the ground.

"It cost us fuel, fuel that we had to scavenge to get in the first place. Those war games grounded us twenty seven miles out. Now we don't have the helicopters we need for recon work, we're late, and the civilian recruits are nervous, exhausted, and terrified." Tseng trudged along next to his employee, hoping that the urge to replace him with a half tame chocobo would fade quickly.

He doubted Rude would object. From the look on the quiet Turk's face, Reno would be lucky to survive the next few days with his gonads intact. Besides, the chocobo could come in handy. They could use it for transportation. The Turks also hadn't had a mascot since Elena tried to introduce a baby blugu to the well armed and highly excitable Administrative Research Department. The chocobo could, in a desperate situation, sacrifice its all to feed its hungry comrades and it could be trained to carry messages. A feat that Reno was still working out.

"We got here." Reno shrugged. "Why bitch about it."

Tseng, now considering other uses of the now quite attractive chocobo, gave an eerie grin. "Then don't complain when you have to carry all the equipment back by yourself."

"What do you mean carry the equipment back?" Reno shot his boss a sharp look, only to be met with a mysterious smile.

"Your replacement wouldn't complain." Tseng sounded like he was nearly purring.

"Replacement?" The redhead glanced around feeling the hair standing up on the back of his neck.

For a few seconds, it had almost been like Tseng had been channeling Veld. Reno had had a lot of experience standing in front of Veld as a young Turk and hoped to never relive those moments again, but there it was: the cooingly vicious voice, the playfully evil smile, the smugly laughing glitter of eyes, the amusedly vague but oh-so-sharp threat. Where was the efficient, no-nonsense Tseng?

"You feeling okay there, boss?" Reno pulled his hands out of his pockets and tried not to look like he was putting room between himself and his superior.

"I'm fine, Reno." Tseng, with a very familiar smile reassured his now even more stressed out employee. "Just fine."

Reno glanced around, wondering where Rude went.

Tseng blandly looked back ahead, pretending not to notice.

"Err…uhmmm…boss? Who's my replacement?" Reno nervously eyed the pack of volunteers.

"Don't worry about it Reno." Tseng gave him a smile that definitely read worry, worry now. "After you carry our things back to Junon, well discuss it."

"Okay." Reno snapped to attention and looked around for something to be useful at. "No problem."

Tseng nodded and placidly walked the remaining way listening to Reno bully the few unlucky stragglers that had the bad taste to still be in eyesight into line. _What do you know? It does work. I wonder if Veld learned that from his predecessor or if he picked it up by himself?_

**Veld**

_Your kid's here._

_Elfie?_ Veld frowned at his unwanted soul partner as he looked out across the fields that stretched out between Kalm and the ruins of Midgar. He was standing on top of the town's fake, picturesque battlements, trying not to step in the chewing gum or cut himself on the smashed beer bottles. Kalm certainly looked more touristy from a distance. Close up, it looked like any other ratty town or city he'd come through.

_The other one._ Chaos sounded like he was gloating about something.

Veld ignored him, but kept having the feeling that if he just looked over to the left he'd see Chaos sitting on the low concrete and stone wall. Not that the demon would actually be there. Oh no, you couldn't expect a Weapon of his caliber to fulfill the unconscious hiccups of the poor ass who'd been volunteered as his host.

Sephiroth was down in the field below standing on an overturned truck and waving the newest recruits into their battalions as an unexpectedly serious Zack hustled them through getting equipment and weapons. Reeve and Hojo were helping a group of engineers and technicians try to get the infrared sensor arrays online with an edgy Cloud standing guard next to them. Yuffie, a newly arrived Nanaki, Vincent, and Highwind were hustling their assigned units into formation even as they smashed newly modified helmets, that would receive the infrared downloads, onto their heads.

As Tseng and a suspiciously alert looking Reno appeared, Sephiroth began gesturing troops over to him. "You have the northeast section, Tseng. Zack he needs a map."

"On it." Zack was already bulling his way through the crowds waving a thick roll of paper over his head. "Reno, you're on logistics with Rude."

Rude lifted his head from a long paper strewn table to wave his partner over even as Zack managed to get the maps into Tseng's hands. The redhead lazed over to the table and proceeded to spread slacker vibes around. Veld could see the work that had been hustling along grind to a halt. He could also see Tseng's incipient migraine as he too recognized the small disaster that had just occurred.

Veld grinned and looked off into the distance. _See, karma works._

_Shut up._ Chaos growled at him.

Veld frowned. Usually he was the one who wanted quiet. He glanced over to where he expected Chaos to be and wasn't disappointed when the demon was not there. There was almost a humming sensation though flowing through him, though, almost like too much adrenaline.

_What's…_

_Jenova…_ Chaos hissed angrily. _That bitch got Jenova…_

**Rufus**

Veld, true to Turk philosophy, had shoved him into a basement storeroom and had locked the door from the outside. Rufus didn't take it personally. He had been expecting it. Their past differences aside, mainly stemming from his late unlamented father's actions, he had always considered Veld to be an excellent Turk, so he took his sudden imprisonment as no more than a good Turk doing his job by any means available.

He'd also overheard Veld and Valentine discuss it the evening before.

For a storeroom, it was comfortable. He had been thoughtfully provided with a nice couch, some nonperishable food, a good supply of water, a small battery powered lamp with plenty of spare batteries, a few books, a pillow, a pile of neatly folded blankets, and lurking in the back of the small room was indeed a portapotty. It was hardly luxurious, but his basic needs for a few days had been provided. Too bad he was going to waste all their thoughtful effort and leave his safe hideaway.

He hadn't gone through weeks of wandering with Valentine, cleaning toilets, tromping around the Western Continent, and camping in deserted, demon infested wastes just to be relegated back to the position of useless figurehead again. He had proven himself! He had stood up to Valentine's moodiness, ticks the size of cats, rations that had the consistency of concrete, monsters trying to crawl into his sleeping bag, Veld's incessant lucky streak at poker, and Sephiroth's campfire cooking. He was not going to back down in the face of a few demons.

So, like any good administrator, he had planned ahead. When he was unceremoniously shoved into his snug, safe prison, he didn't fuss. He just waited until things became quiet, waited a bit more, than used the key he had hidden in the couch cushions to open the door and step out.

It didn't take long to locate the center of activity. People yelled orders, young teens raced past carrying equipment and messages, WRO soldiers, volunteer recruits, and ex-Soldiers shoved and pulled people into battle units, scientists fussed with gadgets.

"Hey, you. Why don't you have your stuff?" An ex-Soldier who had probably once been happily retired in Mideel grabbed him and shoved him towards a line of recruits. "Go get your gear and…" He looked around a moment until he found and got a signal from Zack. "Get into Highwind's group." He gestured towards where Highwind was yelling profanities at his newest followers.

Rufus grinned and snapped into a passable salute, "Yes, sir!"

He was helmeted, infrared goggled, laden with battle armor, and toting an oversized rifle in minutes. No one looked twice at him as he hustled over to join with his unit. His fellows made room for him as he gleefully took his place towards the back of the group.

"Okay. You listen the fuck up when I talk to you and you might not get your asses handed back to you by some fucking demon." Highwind yelled. "We're headed towards the northern sectors of Edge. You fuckin' stay with your buddies and you shoot anything that isn't human…except that dumb ass flaming cat over there." He pointed towards where Nanaki was calmly discussing things with his unit. "Got it!"

"Yes, sir!" Rufus happily yelled with the rest of his pack of soldiers.

"Good. 'Cause I don't like to fuckin' repeat myself." He motioned for them to start marching. "Let's get to this. The sooner we get our asses out of the fuckin' way, the sooner Fair can get his own group together and we can go kick some demon ass."

"Yes, sir!" Rufus merrily caroled with the rest of his new comrades and started marching out of the assembly area.

A sudden deafening roar shattered through the air. Rufus whipped around to see Chaos rise into the air from the city's ramparts and take off towards the horizon.

"What the fuckin…" Highwind whipped around angrily.

"She's got Jenova!" Valentine yelled from the middle of the assembly area. "She's on her way here."

Sephiroth didn't pause, "Tseng get your unit in place to the northeast. Form up on the way there. Zack take what's left and stand in reserve and focus on protecting base. Everyone get to your positions!"

"The arrays aren't set!" Cloud yelled.

"Get them up fast." Sephiroth leapt down from his perch, motioning for his own unit to get in place. "Move!"

Rufus looked back at Highwind as people started to race after their commanders. The pilot was stamping his cigarette into the ground and inspecting them with careful, practiced ease.

"Okay, folks. Here we go. Now keep yourselves in line and kick as much demon ass as you can as quick as you can fuckin' fire those guns." Highwind turned and started out of the city. "Come on boys and girls. Move it!"

**Sephiroth**

Sephiroth cursed himself for not realizing that his dear mother would strike first as his men jogged along behind him. He could see the shadowy form of the army approaching Kalm, and like all his mother's other attacks, the army seemed to just materialize out of nowhere. Communications crackled in the small mic in his ear that seemed to do no more than drive home just how unprepared they really were. Above, the sky was turning a dark, corrupted red color and the brisk wind that had been blowing through Kalm for the last few days had turned stagnant and fetid.

Yuffie's young voice called through the ear piece, "We see her. Hey Cid, where are you old man? You should be on my left flank."

"I'm here kid, but you swung too far to the right. You're out of position."

"Am not!"

"Visual confirmation, General." Nanaki's voice soothed over the other two. "She's coming straight from Edge. I'd say she'll reach Kalm in less than one half hours at her present pace."

"Estimate troops?" Sephiroth waved for Zack to take his unit into position as he listened.

"Unable to even guess. There doesn't seem to be an end." A trace of worry had crept into the fire-cat's voice.

"Affirmative. Maintain your position and wait for sensor arrays to come online to determine her army's true size."

"Sensor arrays are still down." Cloud commented. "Estimated time for them to be running is fifteen minutes."

"We don't fucking have fifteen minutes." Cid yelled into his mic sounding out of breath. "She's on us, now. Fuckin' bitch sent some through the forest."

"Flank attack." Zack sounded disgusted.

"I'm with him." Yuffie called.

"I am in position and can assist." Tseng commented.

"Nanaki, maintain position." Sephiroth looked around for his unit's second in command. "Valentine, where are you?"

"At Nanaki's left flank. I see no sign of another attack from this quarter." His father sounded calm. "Chaos is taking out part of her army in this area, which might account for this."

"Shit." Zack sounded impressed. "That's one big army Seph."

"Illusionary." Cloud called. "Hojo's still insisting they are illusions."

"Agreed." Nanaki murmured. "There is no conceivable way she could move this many creatures into this space in such a short amount of time."

"They fuckin'… don't… fight like illusions." Highwind was out of breath and his speech was punctuated by grunts of exertion.

"My unit's getting creamed!" Yuffie yelled. "Hey…you get back here."

"We have some runners, Seph." Zack had that eerily cheerful voice that he always used during combat.

"Tseng reinforce Yuffie and Highwind." He quickly turned to his unit's second in command. "Continue on this course and meet with Nanaki's unit. Cover the main road into Kalm."

The man saluted as Sephiroth raced quickly forward. "Valentine, Zack, have your second in commands take over and meet me. I'm heading up the main road. We need to buy time for those arrays to come online."

"Okay, Seph."

"Affirmative."

"Cloud, can you meet us?" Sephiroth saw Zack racing to meet him.

"Negative. I have no one to relieve my position."

"Affirmative. Maintain your post." He saw his father appear next to him like a running shadow.

"Look for large targets. Do as much damage as possible, quickly." He drew Mesamune noticing that his father had guns in both hands and Zack had his hand on the hilt of his own sword.

"Agreed." Valentine's voice barely registered.

"Got it." Zack beamed happily.

The army ahead of them loomed from the far horizon. Line after line of abominations grinned, jabbered, and frothed towards the town of Kalm. Off to the far left, a large fire burned with two figures tangled in the smoke that rose in a thick, hellish column from it. Closer, men were shifting into position to meet the oncoming army. To the right, men and abominations were struggling together in a knot of screams, flashes of light off weapons, explosions of firearms, and shrieks.

"Mine." Valentine snarled as he suddenly leapt forward.

Out of the advancing army, a large, purple dog and a hunched, masked creature lumbered forward to meet them.

"Hey, share!" Zack ran to meet the purple dog-thing. "I have some issues I want to discuss with you Fido."

Sephroth sighed to himself then smiled as he caught up with his comrades. It was good to be back.

**Tseng**

"Prepare for infrared." Cloud's voice cut through the screams of the dying, nearly startling Tseng. His unit was taking the brunt of an attack. Highwind's unit and his were fighting close together trying to maintain their position on the northeast flank. Yuffie's unit was also crushed into them as more enemies approached. The other units in other parts of the field were also deep into combat as the encroaching army made for Kalm.

They had managed to push back the first assault, and were now facing the main army. Sephiroth's unit and Nanaki's were now engaged down by the road while Veld, or was it Chaos, took a large chunk out of the eastern flank as he fought with Jenova. Sephiroth, Valentine, and Zack were cleaving through the center, breaking the army into two distinct portions.

"Infrared in 10…"

"Fuckin… Yuffie keep your men in line!" Highwind yelled. "We're tripping over each other!"

"9…prepare infrared goggles."

Tseng considered yelling the information to his unit, but seeing they were all busy hacking apart things that seemed to have been spawned out of childhood nightmares, not to mention one of those nightmares was presently trying to chew off his left arm, he decided to let them find out for themselves. He used a katana to slice at his opponent, a shaggy stump of a creature with large teeth and acid dripping jowels, then tried to shoot it through its massive head. His handgun was running low on bullets, not that it was doing him much good. Every shot seemed to get deflected or absorbed.

"8"

"You aren't even supposed to be there old man!" Yuffie's usually chirpy voice was breathless and distracted.

"7"

"Fuckin'…"

"6"

Tseng managed to kill the monster with a few more cuts, but the man next to him stumbled backwards over its body only to be impaled by his own opponent's mosquito-like proboscis and die screaming as the thing sucked the life from him.

"5"

Tseng turned and hacked the thing away from the man's body as Yuffie and Highwind yammered meaningless insults at each other over the com-link. The ground was getting muddy and slippery from blood, both demon and human. The air, filled with smoke from Chaos's fight and the scent of loosened bowels, choked in his throat.

"4"

"Ariel combatants approaching from the west." Nanaki's voice soothed over the com line.

"3"

Tseng could hear a high pitched buzzing from overhead as he chopped a couple of the mosquito-demon's arms off. It didn't seem to faze it much since it had four others to attack him with. He wondered if there was a marlborro hidden underneath a disguise or one of Hojo's failed creations…or where they really mutations from mako being dumped into the water supply.

"2"

Another arm fell as he wondered how he'd go about investigating water table contamination. It would get him out of the office for awhile and into the outdoors. Maybe that's why Rufus took off. In the end, maybe it was good that Rufus went off. The blond was far from this fight, hopefully safely tucked away with his chocobos, sipping those horrid mint and rum drinks he had discovered a few weeks before Lucrecia stepped back into the world. Tseng dodged, his feet slipping unsteadily in the bloody mud as the thing tried to skewer him with a long arm, and pulled his mind back to the fight.

"1"

"Shit, those flying things are leeches." Highwind sounded betrayed, as if everything that inhabited the sky should be good and benign

"Activation."

The world in front of his combat goggles fuzzed for a fraction of a second then he found himself looking at a red tinted world with a flowerlike monster…or was it a mutation in front of him.

"Fuckin…a needle kiss! I was fuckin' worried about a bunch of needle kisses?" Highwind sounded disgusted.

Tseng glanced around as the flower monster fell. His men, now seeing what was truly in front of them, were pushing their opponents back, but that didn't help the men closest to Highwind's unit. A true demon stood there ripping through the men easily. He angled over, killing a few ironites as he wound through his men.

"Highwind..." He called, "there…"

"I see it. Get the others clear."

He could see the pilot shoving his way through his men as they fought off kyuvildens and more ironites. As he signaled the men facing the demon away, he reloaded his gun, absently wondering if he should use his next paycheck to find a better weapon. Valentine could probably point him in the right direction, and seeing that the man was tearing ferociously through a pack of dark dragons as he pursued a fleeing Hell Masker, he guessed that Valentine at least would be alive at the end of the day. Now he just had to make it.

The demon was one of his old friends from Bone Village, the squid-elfadunk things. Highwind stood on the opposite side of it spattered with gore and holding his spear while waving the last of the recruits away to take care of the normal monsters. A few slower ones didn't get off the field as the squid demon lashed out their tentacles, catching and crushing them. Their bodies joined the litter of leaking corpses to turn already sloshy ground even soupier.

"Any thoughts?" Highwind started carefully circling, looking for an opening.

"None. It's fast and those arms provide a long range attack." Tseng slogged through the scattered fragments of memory of what he remembered from that fight. "Bullets don't do much. Yuffie's Conformer did the most damage up north."

"Don't have a gun, so that's not goin' to bother me." Highwind leapt forward with a downward swing, taking off a flailing arm.

Tseng leapt using the katana driving for an attack against the creature's body. It felt like striking bedrock. The reverberation of the impact sent him staggering away barely holding on to the blade. His blade had bent slightly. It wouldn't be useful long.

"Fuck, that's one tough son of a bitch." Highwind grumbled shifting his spear and flexing his fingers.

"The body is impervious." Tseng circled around hoping the feeling would come back to his hand soon and testing the now damaged katana.

Highwind grunted an affirmative and started hacking at the flailing arms. Tseng dodged as an arm came his way and slashed down at it as it passed. The katana hit, cutting into the arm, but not as deep as he hoped. The arm retracted and two more whipped through the air to swat him away.

"Shit!" Highwind dove through an opening and landed at his side striking at the arms. "The fucker is regenerating!"

Tseng countered another attack and saw that Highwind was correct. The wounds that they had managed to inflict were indeed healing. The tentacles were becoming smooth and strong.

"It's a squid. Try fire." Tseng batted another attack away, hoping to give Highwind a chance to use materia.

"Okay, got it." Highwind quickly pulled a orb from his pocket and exchanged it for one in his spear. He fumbled a moment with the orbs.

"Hurry." Tseng growled realizing that he was trapped until Highwind got the materia activated. If he dodged, Highwind would be left vulnerable.

He hacked at the incoming tentacles as the squid lumbered closer on its stumpy legs. The sword in his hand abruptly shattered leaving him with a seven inch shard that was barely attached to the hilt. "Hurry!"

He drew his gun and started firing shots at the things eyes, swearing at himself. He should have foreseen this. He was familiar with this thing. He'd fought it before. He should have taken precautions. The thing lumbered forward and more tentacles sped in for an attack.

A round of gunfire from the side pause it. A group of recruits that hadn't entirely followed orders had taken a position and were using their rifles firing volleys at the demon.

"Highwind!"

"The fuckin' thing won't attach! The spear's bent. Give me a minute!"

"We don't have one."

The squid shrugged off the bullets and lumbered towards them. Its long arms, having paused during the recruit's attack, whirled towards Tseng and Highwind. Tseng watched them come still grasping the remains of his sword and firing shots that were completely ignored by the demon. It all seemed so slow, almost beautiful. The slender arc of the demon's arms, the way the smoke from the fires and the shadow-light from the corrupted sky softened the air, the sharp snapping sound of the tentacle as it sliced through the air.

"Move!"

Someone slammed into him. One of the recruits from the rifle barrage had shoved him out of the way only to take his place as the next victim. With a thud and a sick cracking sound, the recruit's body was tossed away landing in a tangle of useless, broken limbs in the mire. Tseng struggled to regain his feet as Highwind ducked under the beast's other arms then gave him a feral grin before turning to the demon.

"Phoenix Fire." Highwind gestured and the summon sparkled into existence.

The demon seemed confused by the sudden materialization of another, larger enemy and turned to face the firebird. The summon spread its wings and with a singing cry sent a wave of fire at the demon causing the inrushing arms to fall into ash and cinders before they struck it. The fire consumed the abomination completely, not even leaving the hard shell behind.

"Ha! Take that!" Highwind cheered.

The remaining recruits echoed the cheer. Around them, the battle was drawing to a close. The more everyday creatures were being quickly eliminated and the few true demons that fought were being met by barrages of magic. Off in the distance, where Chaos had been fighting, fire still raged sending thick banks of smoke into the reddened sky, but the Weapon was now gone. Valentine and Zack were still in pursuit of their fleeing prey, but Sephiroth was wading through the remains of the enemy army destroying anything that didn't have enough sense to run away and sending a steady stream of orders for the final clean up.

"Find her." Sephiroth's voice snapped through the com-line. "If she gets away, this will be wasted."

"I'm looking." Yuffie's voice chirped, "but I'm not seeing. Was she even here?"

"Report. Any visuals of Lucrecia Crescent?" Sephiroth casually hacked a dog-valronish demon to pieces then headed for the next demon in his vicinity.

"Negative." Nanaki commented. "We need medical assistance on the field."

"Nope. Didn't see her Seph." Zack wheezed. "Damn. That dog runs fast."

"I have not seen her either." Valentine's voice sounded unbothered even as gunfire was heard from his end of the line.

More voices echoed back the same situation. Tseng slumped down to rest on one knee, ignoring the feeling of too warm mud wetting his knee and looking over at his men. There were far fewer of them then he'd set out with, many were wounded and being supported by their comrades, but they were alive.

Highwind leaned against his spear and pulled out a cigarette after giving his unit a victory salute. "It's done… seems odd though."

Tseng looked around, "What?"

"They all just disappeared. Evaporated." Highwind took a drag of his smoke. "One minute we're ass deep in monsters then all of a sudden we're cooling our heels."

Tseng shrugged. "Illusions dissipate when the caster leaves."

"If she was here." Highwind moved aside as medics raced past him checking bodies.

Tseng grunted glancing over to where Chaos had been. Lucrecia had been trying to summon Jenova…using Elena… If it was now quiet then either Elena or Veld had to be… He struggled to his feet turning towards his unit and away from the place he most wanted to go. "Okay, form up."

They raggedly staggered into place as stretchers started hauling their fellows away. Their eyes remained on Tseng almost desperately, trying to avoid looking at the crushed remains of the people that had been at their sides only a few hours before.

"Keep on guard." He searched the tired faces, noticing that Highwind was gathering his own men together with a colorful variety of insults, instructing them to help with the wounded. "We will maintain our position until further orders."

The men saluted, looking almost relieved that they weren't being ordered back into another battle. They even relaxed a bit, tense shoulders and darting eyes softening to a state of alert calmness. Some of the medics raced past with more stretchers as Highwind suddenly ran over to him catching him by the shoulder.

"I'll take your folks." He nodded towards where a couple of medics were putting the body of the recruit that had shoved him out of the way of the demon attack on a stretcher. "You're needed."

"Highwind. I am very grateful for my life, but I have a duty…" Tseng pulled his shoulder away, wincing as he realized that he'd hurt it during the battle.

"Fuck it. You have another duty, Turk." Highwind looked pointedly at the retreating medics.

"High…"

"It was Rufus that saved your ass." Highwind stepped away. "Go say goodbye."

The stretcher bearing the body was moving down the field towards the town. One slender, limp arm dangled off the side, bouncing lightly as the medics nearly ran across the slippery terrain. Tseng watched the little, sad, desperate group get farther away as the information sank in.

"No…Rufus is…" _safe…sipping a drink…safe…_

Tseng took one step forward.

"Go. I got it here." Highwind was already stepping into his place, calling orders to his men.

He took another step then started running. The ground slipped under his feet as he hurtled over the dead. The horrid smell, the smoke, the whimpers of the wounded and dying slid past. All his focus was on the limp figure that was being taken away. Away from the battle. Away from him.

"No. No. No." Tseng panted, not even aware that he was doing it.

He was almost there. It had to be some kind of sick joke on Highwind's part. Rufus? On a battle field? Absurd! Ludicrous! Rufus with his white jacket wearing standard issue fatigues? Impossible! Rufus wading through muck, blood, and death? Laughable! Rufus sacrificing himself to save him… He wouldn't… No. It was a Turk's job to die for the president, not the other way around. It was all some hideous joke. It was a joke. A joke. Just a…

He caught up with the stretcher. He'd just take one look. It wasn't Rufus, but the man had saved his life. He'd take a look and if the poor bastard was conscious, he'd give his thanks and get back to his men. If not, he'd at least see the face of his rescuer. It was the least he could do… It would only take a second…

They had removed the helmet leaving the sweat dampened blond hair to stick up in untidy spikes and swirls. The only thought in Tseng's head was that he really should comb those down. He'd be annoyed if he woke up to bed hair. The uniform that he wore was tattered, with hastily wrapped bandages around his legs. He'd need clothing… he'd hate to…he…

…Rufus…

Rufus... Vibrant, alive Rufus…

No. It couldn't be him… but it was.

* * *

AN- I am not conversant in military jargon and I probably butchered it completely. Sorry about that.


	21. The End of a Universe

**AN: This hasn't been betaed yet, but I wanted to get it to you as quick as I could. Sorry for the extra long wait, but it was unavoidable. **

**Now a Monster**

**Chapter 21: The End of a Universe**

**Vincent**

It gave me great pleasure hunting Hellmasker down and slowly killing it. I could have probably been of more help in the battle, but my son…what an odd concept…seemed to be enjoying himself decimating his mother's army. Our more common soldiers were doing fine as well. They seemed to be mostly standing their ground with Avalanche and the Turks assisting them. Thus, I felt that I could take a bit of personal time and deal with a few past issues.

Zack had taken on Gallian, which didn't bother me much. That one was mostly a bundle of instincts. Being angry at it would have been the equivalent of holding a grudge against a poorly trained, rabid animal. Hellmasker and Death Gigas had been far more unwelcome and far more intelligent. They knew what they had done and had had found enjoyment in doing it. The only regret I felt as I systematically shot body parts off Hellmasker was that Gigas had already been cut into fillets by Sephiroth.

I was just finishing up taking off Hellmasker's right leg when Lucrecia's army started evaporating around me, sometimes literally. Quite a few so-called demons simply vanished into nothing making the once nightmarish army dwindle significantly. My chick had been right. They had been illusions with some ordinary monsters hidden behind them and only a very few true demons. I contemplated this as I blew Hellmaskers right shoulder apart with a few shots.

_I have a very smart chick. Now if he only had some sense…_

"Report. Any visuals of Lucrecia Crescent?" My son's voice queried over the communications link.

I glanced around. I was rather deep into the enemy army but I couldn't spot anyone looking like Lucrecia. Many of the normal monsters were racing away from the battle field looking confused and panicked. Most were creatures that, while very dangerous, preferred to be far away from people. Suddenly waking to find themselves not only in an odd place, but surrounded by loud noise, carnage, smoke, and weapon wielding people had probably frightened them badly and their first instinct was to flee for shelter.

"Negative. We need medical assistance on the field." Nanaki's voice was the first to respond sounding exhausted.

"Nope. Didn't see her Seph. Damn. That dog runs fast." Zack stumbled into the conversation panting.

That made me smile as I started in on Hellmakser's left leg, starting at the ankle. "I have not seen her either."

"No sign of her here." Cloud commented.

"Not me."

"Nope."

Damn.

I finished my game with Hellmasker, using the last of a clip of bullets to finish my vivisection, then dodged a frantic looking tonberry as it sped away. It had lost its knife somewhere and was waddling with a limp towards the tree line. I didn't bother dealing with it. There would be more than enough predators in the area that would find a wounded, unarmed tonberry a good snack.

I turned away from what was left of Hellmasker and surveyed the area. What remained of the army was being speedily dispatched into the lifestream. The fire that Chaos had started during his fight with Jenova was now gone, but the thick miasma of smoke still hung heavy over the area. Even the sky was lightening. Medics were rushing onto the field to locate the wounded. Our army's units were reassembling into coherent groups and being led to clean the last of the combatants out.

The only area that showed nothing moving was where the smoke was the heaviest. Where Veld was.

Lucrecia could wait.

I wound through the battle field dodging stretchers and leaping over the worst of the carnage. While we had taken a bit of damage to our side, mainly amongst the volunteer soldiers, most of the damage had been inflicted on the monsters.

"Quadrant one, clear." Yuffie called. "Should we head over to help out Nanaki's folks? They seem to be having some trouble over there with those…"

"We have them, Yuffie. Thank you for the offer." Nanaki broke in.

"Maintain your position." Sephiroth ordered. "Everyone stay alert. She might be doing a tactical retreat."

"I'm done with Rover." Zack still sounded winded. "I'm heading back to my unit."

I leapt past Nanaki's group and noted that they were indeed finishing up what looked like a sea urchin on squat little legs and a wolf's head poking oddly out from a next of waving black spines. I nodded briefly to the fire-cat and continued to where I had last seen Chaos. If Chaos had done to Veld as he had often done to me –abandoning me after a fight, leaving me exhausted and vulnerable- I needed to get to my partner before anything got to him.

As I went further into the smoke, more bodies started showing up. The fire had baked them into fantastical shapes, almost like a madman's version of sculpture. The ground was charred and hot under my combat boots. The smell of roasted flesh and smoke clutched around my throat trying to choke me.

"Veld!" I yelled scanning the area. "Veld, answer me!"

It was a long shot, but I hoped that he'd chirp out an insult of two to let me know where he was. I wasn't really expecting one. Chaos had always left me completely drained after one of his appearances. Seeing the amount of power that it would have taken to make this side of the field into a barren, blasted waste, I would have bet that even Chaos was now exhausted.

"Veld!" I looked at each corpse I went past, just in case.

They were mostly poor dumb animals that had been caught in the fight. A shattered, burnt wing of a tonadu protruded upwards from the ground. What looked to be a pack of silly cripshaws were in a tangled, smoking heap. The heavy bones of a diablo were scattered and blackened as they poked out of the grayish top ash that puffed up with each step I took.

"Veld!"

I scrambled over a heap of dead adamantaimai hoping for some sign. There was a crater of some sort over to the right, so I slipped down a handy thigh bone and went investigating. When I got to the edge, I saw what was down there. I guess at one point in time, it was once Jenova. Now it was a naked Elena feebly trying to crawl away from a melting greenish-blue figure that was disintegrating into a clear puddle of ooze.

I slid down the slope and lifted her. She gave a small whimper and tried to bat me away with one broken hand.

"Elena. It's okay." I jumped lightly to the top of the crater, searching for a safe place to put her while I searched for Veld.

"Vincent."

I turned to find Nanaki slowly picking his way through the rubble. His lush red coat was now burned in places and his mane was weighed down in blood. A few minor wounds showed up as shinier patches against his now dull fur.

"I saw you head this way. Do you want me to help? My senses are limited here, but I might be of assistance." He seemed hesitant.

I suppose I could hold a grudge for his actions up north, but Nanaki was really still only a teen, not an adult quite yet. I think I tended to forget that at times. His very presence, his calmness, and his flashes of wisdom made me think of him as older. As a teen, he was still liable to be swayed by others, far too easily at times, especially if those others were people he knew and respected.

"Thank you, my friend." I nodded to him solemnly. "I would much appreciate it."

He gave me a small cat smile. "No. Thank you."

We headed deeper into the waste, skirting around blasted trees that still had small licks of flame flickering along their broken trunks, passing charred corpses of various animals, and occasionally sliding down a hillside. The area that Chaos and Jenova had destroyed between them seemed to stretch on for over a mile. I carried Elena, who continued to make small, ineffective gestures as if trying to ward me off. They were piteously weak, but it didn't stop her from trying. Someplace in her, some small spark was still fighting to survive. Turks, even this one, were tough.

Nanaki finally found Veld laying behind a pile of debris covered in ash. As I approached, he opened his eyes and gave me a tired smile.

"Damn, that was fun." My partner chuckled. "It was like that turf war we fought. Remember the one with the Red Vests down around the docks in Junon?"

I carefully set Elena down on a piece of ground that seemed safe enough and went to Veld's side. "Yes, wasn't that the time you fell on a broken bottle and got a three inch piece of glass in your ass?"

"No, not that one." He winced as I started checking him for injuries. "The one where the numb-nut local contact gave us the wrong info and we raided an upper class nude beach, had to backtrack to the correct piece of slum, and then spent the afternoon kicking those dumb, sodding asses up and down the docks."

He had only a few minor wounds. A burn on the back of his elbow and a few shallow scrapes. The worst was a long cut that slashed across his back from his right shoulder blade down to his left hip. Mainly, he just seemed exhausted…and chatty. Chatty with Veld was a warning sign that something during that battle had rattled his nerves. I shrugged is aside though. He'd get around to telling me about it later, once he'd rolled it around in his head a few times and came up with a bit of snarky, flip commentary about the incident to share with me.

"Come on." I hefted him up. "We need to get out of here."

Nanaki volunteered to help by carrying Elena and the four of us backtracked our way out of that zone. Elena settled down instantly when placed on Nanaki's back and buried her face in his dirty mane. Veld kept chatting about past missions, many of which I only vaguely remembered. My memory lapse wasn't a side effect of anything dramatic; they had just been dull. After a few all nighters watching some pimp smack around his whores, things started looking the same. Veld seemingly remembered everything.

"…and then that guy, the one with the bandana over his right eye, started yelping that we spoiled his new shoes…" He babbled on.

I wondered if I could hunt down Tseng and hand Veld over to him. It would probably take a day or so for Veld to work his nerves out on his own, but with Tseng to torment, he'd probably be fine by this evening. I considered it as we made our way through the battle field.

"Shall we go to the medic's tent?" Nanaki walked carefully at my side trying not to disturb Elena.

"Take her. I'll take him back to the apartments." I wasn't entirely sure, as I watched the fire-cat leave whether I wanted to take Veld back to the apartments because he was mostly unharmed, or because in the mood he was in he'd spill most anything. There were a few moments as a young Turk I was less than willing to share with everyone, and I was coming to the conclusion as Veld started yammering on about a rather nasty incident involving a punk kid with a baseball bat that had been holed up in a safe house's basement, that my partner needed his privacy.

I didn't mind if my chick overheard. Hojo knew most of those lovely moments, but having Tseng and Avalanche find out about the humiliating time I was chased down a Midgar street by a pissed off mother chocobo was not something I wanted to contemplate. Yuffie alone would make my life miserable.

Speaking of my chick, I wondered where he was. I took a small detour around the sensory array computers but couldn't spot him. A few dead monsters were littered around testifying that at least a few came close enough for Cloud to dispatch, but no gawky chicks were roving about.

"Cloud." I shifted Veld, who was blithely rambling on about freezing our asses off up in the north while searching for a pilfered watch that some kid had taken from the president's hotel room. I was beginning to wonder if I got verbal diarrhea after being possessed by Chaos. If so, I was lucky that he abandoned me after the whole Deepground fiasco. Who knows what I might have inadvertently babbled. Now that the thought occurred to me, a few unwanted, and completely forgotten confessions might explain why Yuffie got nervous around me whenever someone started playing cribbage –Cid's favorite game, unfortunately- I had a few not so nice stories of an old set up Veld and I had invented involving that game.

"Vincent." The blond came over and glanced at my companion. "We're nearly finished here."

"Where's Hojo?" I still tried to spot him amongst the milling crowd of scientists who were dismantling the equipment.

"I sent him back to the apartment." Cloud nodded towards the town. "He was looking pale."

I frowned. I should have thought of that. My chick was barely recovered from his episode with Lucrecia. It would have been very stressful for him to work under combat conditions which would have affected his health. It was pure selfishness that caused me to haul him from Junon here, but I honestly could not force myself to leave him behind. However, I should probably have locked him in the same room as Rufus to keep him safe. After all, he was far more important than old man Shinra's brat but he had also been too valuable an asset to our army to leave in safe seclusion. I just hoped that he had the sense to go lie down and rest…

…my chick…sense…

I started to worry.

**Hojo**

I don't know exactly when it occurred to me, but I knew what was going to happen. I watched on the computer screen as Lucrecia's army came apart. I saw just how few demons were actually present on the field. I knew. I just knew.

She figured it out. She knew that with me standing behind the lines, with Sephiroth standing in the front, and every soldier prepared to look right through her illusions, her attacks were over. So, she did the only thing she could do. She bluffed. She sent her troops ahead to attack, distracting us from what she was really planning.

It was obvious once I thought about it, once I noticed what was actually on the battle field, or more precisely what wasn't on the field…massive amounts of demons. The others were busy celebrating the victory, even Cloud was happy in his own silent way. They never bothered to consider just how quickly things ended or how few true casualties there were. These things had wiped out cities and they thought it could end just like that? They didn't think. They yelled. They waved. They cheered. They were just happy that it was over.

But it wasn't.

I tried to pull Cloud aside and explain it to him, but he shook his head, continuing his streak of what-I-don't-think-about-can't-harm-me. He instead shooed me away, telling me to return to the apartment and rest. He even sent a little soldier who was so nervous I felt that I would be protecting him on the way back. I let Cloud wave me off and headed back with my escort jittering nervously at my side ready to shoot any stray pigeons that might be brave enough to attack us.

I kept my thoughts to myself. I had to do something. I had failed so miserably before. I failed to protect Vincent. I failed Sephiroth. Veld, Elena, Barret, even Bettina and Davies had suffered because of her. Because I was, as always, a fool. I fell for her tricks. I got used, drugged. I even shot Vincent because of her, and she wasn't through yet. The only thing that stood between her and destroying everything I ever cared for was time.

And if I was correct, she had all the time in the world.

I quickly went back to the apartment, patted my little soldier on the head, offered him a cookie, sent him off to be brave in other parts of the town and then found the gear we'd used to travel from Junon to Kalm. In a typically efficient, Turk-like way, things had been carefully restocked, packed, and put away. All I had to do was subtract a few things that would weigh me down and I was out the door in minutes. The only things I paused for on my way out of town was a gun from the armory supplies that Highwind had brought with him and to steal the gold chocobo Sephiroth seemed to favor. I hoped my son wouldn't take it too hard, but then again, he never was overly sentimental over birds. Weapons, fine wine, that black leather monstrosity of a jacket, and his long hair were nearly sacred to him, but a bird was a bird to him.

I wonder if there is some connection between his coat and Vincent's beloved cape. Could poor fashion choices be genetic? I'll have to look into that someday…

Anyway, there were only two places that I knew of that she could go. One was the small island to the east. I figured it was possible that she would go there. It was less obvious than the other alternative, and it was also closer. Ideal for a quick retreat.

The problem was that I had no idea when she left or even if she had been on the battle field. I could calculate that with the few true demons that had shown on the monitor that she had been around for at least the very beginning of the battle. Also, I could speculate that she had been there, somewhere, for the majority of the rest to maintain control over her troops. However, I had no idea when she left. She could still be on the field and I could be racing off into the wilderness on another miss-considered adventure.

Nothing new there.

Vincent would probably be nursing a headache soon and wondering if mythril shackles were going to be making a debut in my future. I probably would have been more enthusiastic over that if I didn't know that Vincent's kinks don't include chains and cuffs. I supposed they reminded him too much of work. I know I didn't particularly care for the "naughty doctor" routine for that reason. There was just something passion killing about suddenly being reminded by a casually playful comment that I forgot to file that last report and my entire department would grind to a painful halt the next morning, leading to inquiries, explanations about lost man hours, and stomach churning amounts of paperwork.

I might get lucky and get a spanking though…if there was anything left to spank after Vincent got done chewing my ass off.

Ah well, he'd get over it…sooner or later. Probably later, though.

The chocobo warked a bit as we passed the chocobo farm. It probably was dreaming of some nice greens, or perhaps a nut or two. I really needed to look into those. I wonder what would happen if you fed them to a person. For a moment, the image of my son standing in front of me with glowing gold hair and looking rather peeved surfaced. Then it was replaced by a disturbing image of a young Mrs. Strife chomping on nuts and eyeing a rather clueless Mr. Strife. Maybe those nuts weren't such a great idea…

I contemplated the nut situation as we raced towards the coast and out into the ocean. There was a island just off the coast that, while not as flashy as the larger island with the materia mine, which would one day explode into a lovely mako volcano, had the distinction of being the only other place other than the cavern under that waterfall, to have a mako crystal column large enough for a person to entomb themselves inside of.

It was the perfect escape. To date, no one had learned how to cut a mako crystal, let alone a column of it. The main problem was that mako healed itself. Also, theoretically, she could shift location. Since she would be in essence part of the lifestream, it was possible for her to move to any point in it. I wasn't sure of the mechanics of that, but the possibility was there, which, considering her past, didn't fill me with unending amounts of glee.

The chocobo barely paused as we rushed up the island's beach and I steered us towards the cliff that bisected the island. Long ago, some geological catastrophe split the island raising on half of it high into the air while the other stayed peacefully slumbering. I suspected that there had been a surge in the lifestream back in the old days when the Ancients still roamed the world, possibly around the same time the crater was formed in the Northern Continent. Anyhow, the island cracked and now there was a rather dank cave that had little to recommend it except there was a magnificent mako column in the center of it.

I scrambled off the chocobo the second it came to a halt by the cave entrance. It was night time by the time we arrived and the cave looked like something out of those old movies I used to love to watch. However, the moon was bright so I could get a relatively good look at it. It looked undisturbed. Cobwebs still strung across the narrow passage and the muddy ground was unmarred by any feet but mine. Still, I batted the webs aside and cautiously went in. It only took a few minutes of me bumbling around, smacking my head on rocks and tripping over accumulated sticks and shattered stalagmites, before I found myself in the main cavern. The mako column was hardly as picturesque as the one by Corel. Oh, it glowed and sang its nearly inaudible song, but it lacked the serene beauty of the other. There were no smaller crystals to glitter like fallen stars standing attendance on its beauty, no pool of mako tinged water, no crowning halo of other crystals jutting outwards as if glorifying the beauty of the column. Nope. It was just a plain old column of glowing green that notably lacked anyone in the center of it.

I looked around. She should have been there. It was the closest and thus the more…

…unless she had figured that out too. While I was standing there dithering, she was on her way to Corel. Damn me and my stupid brain. Of course it would be Corel. Lucrecia head off to some second rate crystal in the middle of nowhere? She had no worries. No one would be able to pry her out of her crystal fortress until she damn well wanted to and if she could move through the lifestream, then we could seal that cave and she'd just laugh. All she needed was access to the lifestream and she'd…

…access…

I stood frozen as the weight of my stupidity came crashing down on top of me. She just needed access to the lifestream. She didn't need a crystal. That had just been the most convenient one thirty years ago, but today, thanks to Sephiroth and Cloud, there was a much easier way. Mideel.

I ran back to where I left the chocobo and after a few tries, managed to get on its back and we headed off across the ocean angling for Mideel. Years ago, Vincent and Veld had decided to invent a game night to inspire their recruits with happy thoughts of being in the Turks- Old Man Shinra's idea I'm sure- so they rounded up piles of games to test. One of their favorites was Conquest, a cheerful game where happy-go-lucky players got to move around a map of the planet collecting armies, while pillaging and looting the countryside. I spent years being nothing more than collateral damage as Vincent and Veld butchered the game board Planet's inhabitants and snipping remarks about the backwoods rubes they were mercifully putting out of their misery. Usually, I was lucky to torch a small village before one of them trampled over me with one of their hoards of bloodthirsty minions. However, I did learn a lot about the geography of our lovely planet, so I had no problem urging my chocobo to race directly for Mideel.

I must have dozed part of the way there. When my now irritated chocobo and I arrived at the town, the sun was lightening the sky and I was aching. The once tranquil village had been shattered once again. The houses that Reeve and his WRO had so painstakingly patched together after my son's exuberance with celestial bodies were once again in ruins. The only thing that seemed to be intact was the wharf some entrepreneurial spirit had built along the lakeside.

And there on the side of the mako lake was another chocobo. It looked like a wild one that had been tethered to keep it from running off. Over to one side, my dear ex-wife was kneeling on the ground next to a pack while a small baboon shaped demon sat next to her rocking back and forth making small grunting noises while it chewed nervously on its fingers.

I patted the gun I had stuffed into my pocket to make sure it was there and went to have a bit of quality time with my ex. She turned to look at me as I carefully picked my way across the lakeshore's rocky parameter.

"I thought you would show up." She didn't seem upset that I was there. She nodded to me and went back to her unpacking. "How did the battle go?"

"You lost." I paused to watch her a moment. She seemed to be just pulling out random items and sorting them into piles. "But seeing you didn't really put much effort into it, I'm sure you aren't overwhelmed with surprise over that."

"No." She sighed and pulled out the last of the items. "It was pointless by the end. My time window passed and there was nothing more to be done."

"Time window?"

"Didn't you read my work? Didn't you read Grimiore's?" She scooped up a pile of things and stood to face me. "Didn't anything sink in?"

"I have no idea what…"

She gave a small disgusted snort. "I should have known. You are so blind. People are so blind. That's why…" She turned away shaking her head walking towards the mako lake.

I pulled the gun from my pocket, "Lucrecia…"

She glanced over at me as she stepped onto the wharf. "You're going to shoot me without knowing why?"

I wanted to know why. I really wanted to, and she knew it. Those few seconds that I stood dithering about why she had done it and if she would explain it to me allowed her to walk a few more steps out towards the lake. I lifted the gun, aiming it as Vincent had taught me years ago. "No, I don't want to know. Come back to the shore."

She set the things down that she had in her arms, "I'm surprised. You usually want to know everything." She took time to step across the items, further onto the dock. "But then, you probably think I'm the bad guy here, don't you?"

I always pictured this moment differently. I pictured myself full of righteous wrath, avenging myself, paying her back for what she did to Vincent. I pictured myself standing firm and resolute protecting Vincent from the one person he had been helpless against. I pictured her spitting slander and evil vindictiveness, threatening to come back and destroy everyone and everything I cared for. In my darkest thoughts, I pictured her laughing triumphantly as I cowered helplessly before her as she crowed about doing vile things to Vincent.

Instead, it was sudden, quiet, and terrifyingly easy. She took another step out to the mako lake which glowed a softly and comfortingly as its waves lapped the shore with delicate whispers. The wind, which I hadn't even noticed, ruffled her clothes and hair. She really was lovely. In that moment I saw her as she could have been, brilliant, carefree, smiling, and happy. I saw all the possibilities that she neglected, all the bright, hopeful dreams she could have pursued. And I pulled the trigger. The gun made almost a comical pop, and she stumbled, turning slightly to look at me with an almost curious expression on her face before she tumbled forward into the lake.

I stood there, frozen with the gun still raised, watching as she made a few weak motions before sinking slowly into the lifestream, her body disintegrating as it moved away from the surface.

I could see why Vincent sometimes looked so bleak after an assignment. It was like killing an entire universe of possibilities. As warped as she had been, she had seen the world uniquely. She had experiences that no other would ever have; opportunities only she could have explored; things that she had done, loved, hated, known, wanted, and dreamed of that were now gone.

I had done that.

The gun dropped to the ground and I stood looking at the spot she had been in. Where was the triumph? Where was the righteousness? Where was the sense of doing the right thing? What was the point of everything if it could all end in a silly pop and a splash? All the pain, all the loss and …pop? What if she… Couldn't I have… Wouldn't it have been better… Why?

An arm slipped around me. "Don't think about it."

"Vincent…" I turned and clung to him.

"You did the right thing." He held me close. "Let it go now."

So it ended, in Mideel with me crying like a heartbroken child in Vincent's arms over a woman who had never loved anyone, as Sephiroth, our son, stood quietly near the wreckage of Mideel watching us with sad, old eyes.

* * *

**Thank you for reading and please review. There are still a few chapters to go. I'll get to work on them as soon as possible.**


	22. Operation Tseng

AN: I didn't even proof read this. Sorry. I'm going through a major life-shaking event right now and proofing is spotty. I'll try and fix this later when I don't feel so jagged.

Now a Monster

Chapter 22: Operation Tseng

* * *

Rufus

Rufus sat in his wheelchair and looked out the window. After four months, the injuries that he'd received during the last battle with the demons had healed, but with his love for drama, he'd hung on to the wheelchair. He liked that people underestimated him, equated crippled with stupid, and discounted both him and Shinra. It was allowing him to once again rebuild Shinra while others, like WRO stood in front of the public's ever watchful and fickle eye.

Reeve, still recovering his health, was being trotted into press conferences, interviews, and irate board meetings about how the demon situation had escalated out of control so quickly. Under the banner of "the people want answers" every political hack, self-styled commentator, and pop celebrity were elbowing each other out of the way in the race to any microphone or camera for a chance to spit out one theory or another about the mismanagement of the situation and how they, in their infinite wisdom, would have handled the situation.

"Has Palmer come up with the final cost estimates on the communications satellite launch?" Rufus glanced back over his shoulder at Tseng.

"They are on your desk, sir." Tseng stood at casual attention behind him, his eyes absently scanning the surrounding area outside the window.

Rufus nodded and continued watching the wind ruffle through the banners advertising a free concert in the courtyard outside Shinra's Junon headquarters. The city was pulling itself together again and the things that had been sacrificed in the name of expediency during the emergency situation, public services, landscaping, civic activities and the like, were once again becoming important. With a few words in the correct ears, Shinra Incorporated had been cleaned of graffiti, landscaped in "planet friendly" artistry, and was hosting small concerts, art shows, and plays. While Reeve was roasted, Shinra was becoming the public's darling. Calls for the reintroduction of a full Soldier program and the golden days of Shinra were gradually getting louder as Reeve looked paler, more ineffective, and lost.

Rufus almost felt sorry for the man, but that was why he backed WRO in the first place. It was the ideal screen to shift behind during a crisis. He'd learned his lesson during the Jenova Wars. People loved heroes, but they also loved destroying them.

Shinra, both through his father's mismanagement and through the incompetence of its board of directors, had been left vulnerable. The addition of Avalanche would have been no more than a nuisance. Sephiroth's Jenova inspired rampage could have been hushed up or deflected. Even the whole thing with the meteor could have been shuffled away as an act of nature. After all, who really had known what? Would a cabbie on a Midgar street really have noticed a force field surrounding the Northern Crater? Would a harried motherin Kalm have connected huge monsters rising from the sea –monsters that had been firmly dealt with by Shinra- as signs of Shinra corruption? Would anyone have been able to distinguish one of the Sephiroth clones as anything more than a fashion trend gone terribly wrong? Even the meteor, what store clerk would have put together the clones, the monsters, the force field, and a onetime war hero who had been missing and presumed dead for five years to arrive at the conclusion that Shinra was responsible? It had been the gross mismanagement of the board and the high profile of the company that had made them targets.

He had learned. Instead of rushing out to "deal with the situation", he sat quietly back and let Reeve take the hit while he stayed quietly working behind the scenes. He only had to wheel himself around a bit, make a few feel-good speeches in which he said nothing concrete, and let Reeve deal with the angry mobs who had a few short months before the demons arrived, been considering erecting a statue in his honor as a hero of the Jenova War and as the humanitarian who worked to heal the Planet.

Now, all Rufus had to do was learn how to deal with Tseng, Tseng who had gone back to being proper and business like. During his recovery, Tseng had hovered next to him being caring and attentive. He didn't even need to ask before the thing he had wanted most was provided: a plumped pillow, pain medication, a drink of filtered water, and more than once had lain in bed with him soothing nightmares in which he had been too late and the demon's tentacle had struck Tseng, killing him. The attention and caring had all lasted until the day the physician and physical therapist had cleared him to return to work, the day he had stopped being Rufus and returned to being Mr. President.

"The concert tonight is chamber music from a composer out of Wutai, Huang Zheng." He kept his voice bland. "I was thinking of attending. It might be good to put in a public appearance."

"I will arrange for security, sir." Tseng intoned with a professional blandness.

"Of course." Rufus nodded. _Of course you will. Never mind the hundred and two different things you could have said, such as that is your favorite composer, or that you would escort me yourself, or even have a good time Rufus. No, you will arrange for security._ "However, I have already arranged to go with Veld. He's already taken security into account."

That was Veld's contribution to the situation. When Rufus had approached Veld in a fury over being once again relegated to the role of figurehead and offered Veld his old position back, the ex-Turk and grinned, snickered a bit, then came up with a plan to, as Veld had said, yank Tseng's head out of his ass. He also accepted the job under the condition that Valentine would share the position and that the department would have its own executive board member, Tseng. Seeing what Veld could do, having a track record of successfully blackmailing nearly every member of Shinra's staff from the former president on down to a stock boy in the company convenience store, Rufus felt that the repercussions of the new arrangement would keep him and most of the company entertained for years as Tseng futilely tried to be Veld's boss with anything approaching success. He just hadn't told Tseng of the new arrangements yet, half hoping that Tseng would give him reason to keep him as Turk Leader.

"I also will be going to dinner afterwards. I'll need a car and a chauffeur." Rufus watched Tseng's reflection in the window.

Tseng's eyes narrowed a bit but otherwise he looked placidly detached as he nodded, "Reno…"

"Is off on assignment." Rufus interjected with a pleased smirk. He'd personally signed that order the moment he had returned to work. He had endured Reno's wit and not so quiet remarks about his personal life before, but not now, not again. The redhead owed his continued well being to Veld's intersession. He had wanted Reno to find a quiet retirement in the middle of a swamp, preferably right in the middle of it, as in buried in it. Citing personnel problems, such as there only being Reno, Rude, and Tseng on active duty, Veld had instead suggested sidelining the Turk to activities that would keep him far away.

Not to mention, how could Veld twist Tseng around his fingers if Tseng wasn't there to get twiddled with. Rufus looked calmly across the desk at the doomed soul that was slated to be Veld's toy for the evening. "Rude, I believe, is still investigating the transportation ring murders."

Tseng's lips tightened. "Of course, sir. Then I will accompany you tonight."

Rufus gave a fake sigh. "We have to look into recruiting."

It was actually already being handled by Valentine, who had even scouted an excellent training facility to educate the candidates in the decrepit cabins outside of Bone Village that had been moldering for decades. The first lucky souls would be arriving next week to begin training for their careers as Turks and getting a crash course in wilderness survival and carpentry as well. Tseng had been quietly left out of that loop by the simple expedient of being kept busy with board meetings dealing with the movement of the refugees back to their homes, the subsequent rise of criminal activity involving refugees being abandoned or killed on the roads by professional guides who had promised safe, comfortable trips back home to those that had no one to travel with, or were frightened enough to want an armed escort.

"I'll look into it immediately." Tseng stepped back as Rufus wheeled backwards and headed back towards his desk. "Elena is well enough to sort through applications."

Elena, who had graduated back to being on inactive duty, was already tucked firmly in Veld's camp and spent much of her time keeping Tseng from knowing what was happening in the department. He really needed to explain things to Tseng. The man wasn't a fool, and he'd figure it out soon, besides, Valentine had requested Elena to help him sort through the tangles of paperwork and background checks that needed to be done for each recruit.

This time the sigh wasn't fake as Rufus maneuvered himself behind his desk. "I've made a few changes to the Turks."

"Changes sir?" Tseng walked over to stand attentively in front of the desk. "What kind of changes were you thinking of?"

"I'm making you part of the executive board." Rufus watched Tseng unconsciously wince. "Veld and Valentine are returning to active duty and are taking over the running of the Turks."

"And what are my new duties supposed to be." Tseng's voice had an unsuccessfully suppressed tone of anger in it.

"Basically, you now have Heidigar's job. Only no large robots, and if you ever laugh at me like a horse, I will have Veld shoot you." Rufus watched Tseng forcefully control his temper. He had expected this. He just had hoped…well, too late now. He'd delayed this as long as possible and Tseng had forced this action into play. If he had just unbent, treated him like a person, showed even for a moment that he actually thought of Rufus as Rufus and not Mr. President then Veld would have been the one promoted and he'd have merrily watched Veld shred each mindless idea the board came up with on a startlingly regular basis. But Tseng hadn't. Instead, Rufus was left wondering if all the gentle care and what he had truly thought had been love that Tseng had given him during his recovery had been nothing more than duty mixed with a bit of gratitude, or worse, a man protecting his paycheck.

"When will this go into effect, sir?" Tseng was nearly hissing.

"Now." Rufus met the furious look with a bland smile. "Congratulations."

Tseng nodded tersely, "Will there be anything else, sir?"

"No." Rufus pulled a file off the top of a stack of work looming on one corner of his desk. "Just remember the concert tonight. I'll be going to dinner directly afterwards. Veld might accompany me." He opened the file, dismissing Tseng with a small nod.

"As you wish, sir." Tseng quietly stalked out of the office.

**Zack**

The road wound through the mountains of Midgar winding through screes of boulders and blasted vegetation then downward into the great pit that had been the city which spread in shattered burned pieces in the center of the plain. What small vegetation that had made a tentative foothold in the mako depleted area had been sent into retreat by a harsh winter.

"Yeehaa!" Zack whipped around a curve sending a spray of rock chattering down the slop as he raced to catch up with Cloud.

Sephiroth was barely in the lead by one tire length with Cloud pressing him on the right. Zack had been forced into third a mile back when the road narrowed, but he was ready to take advantage of the next opportunity –which he thought would be around the next corner- to pass both.

They had been kicked loose from their reconstruction duties to check on stray monster reports coming from the east of Midgar. Some of the retunees had been having problems with a rilfsak that had taken up residence on the coast. After months of endless waving at crowds, kissing babies, getting stalked by crazed women, and watching Cloud and Seph eye each other like exotic chocolates, Zack had nearly yelled thank you to Aeris when the poor, doomed rilfsak poked its lost way into his life.

As he predicted, the road flattened and widened after the curve. While Sephiroth swerved to keep Cloud from passing him, Zack flashed past both and used the small opportunity to gain a lead. He grinned as he picked up the distinct sound of Sephiroth cursing him to the bleakest, blackest part of the lifestream.

He was nice enough, after he raced into the camp outside of Edge yards in front of his friends, to not gloat too much. Seeing just how much effort he'd made restraining the urge to comment on blonds and people with light colored hair in general and their legendary mental weaknesses, he was miffed that his best buds would so viciously and deliberately dump him into a chocobo watering trough.

"Hey! What was that for?" Zack spat old water out of his mouth at Sephiroth. "Poor loser."

"I know what you were thinking." Seph, his bestest bud, the one he regularly and selflessly risked his hide to protect, the man he looked up to and respected more than any other, turned away with a casual flick of his hair. "Color has nothing to do with it. Spending your cadet days drinking illegal brews made with socks from the barrack floors is something else."

"I never drank that!" Zack pulled himself out of the trough making sure that Cloud was covered in mud. "That was…errr…Zane…yeah, Zane."

"Alter-ego?" Cloud flicked mud back at him.

Zack narrowed his eyes and looked about suspiciously, "Evil twin."

"Delusion." Seph called back striding through the tent village heading towards the WRO tent where some little eager neophyte administrator would provide them with a place to rest, the latest news on the rilfsak, and in their wildest fantasies, a map to the location.

Zack was betting the map would be hand drawn and out of scale. After many missions like this, Zack could guess that the map, if it existed, would be drawn either in pen with lots of squiggly correction lines or drawn in very faintly with a dull pencil which would need an advanced spectrograph analysis to decipher. If it was the pencil, they wouldn't be getting rooms right now and they'd be hustled off to deal with the problem so they could experience the wonders of the barely there map at night, by flashlight, with the monster slithering around them making taunting little noises as if saying only complete dumb asses would be out, with me, at night, with that map, and expect to get out of this with anything approaching dignity intact.

Cloud seeing his newest obsession disappearing with an elegant swirl of silvery hair, gave Zack one last warning glare, flicked more mud at him, and strode off rapidly to catch up. Zack didn't even have to be next to him to know that Cloud's eyes were firmly fixed on Sephiroth's ass. Too bad Seph was relatively clueless about interpersonal relationships and Cloud was too dense to make the first move.

_I guess it's going to be Uncle Zack to the rescue…_

"Hey, Zack." Someone called.

He turned and spotted Reno waving from the entrance of a tent that had the distinct look of a bar about it. "Hey!"

"Come on. Drinks on me." Reno ducked back in.

Zack took one last look to where Sephiroth and Cloud disappeared to then trotted over to the bar. Reno had taken over one of the back tables which was already awash with bottles and glasses. The other patrons of the bar were clustered around a make-shift counter that looked like it had once been the side panels of a bus and a couple of sawhorses.

"Reno, what you doin' here?" Zack flopped himself into a rickety folding chair as the red head poured them both shots of something indefinable.

"Valentine's got us running around looking for recruits." Reno shrugged. "Got a line on some kid that's good with knives."

Turk interviews tended to take time and sometimes a body bag or two so Zack, seeing no half conscious body laying around guessed things weren't going too well. "Any luck?"

"This kid, not really. He's got a bit of talent, but no brains." Reno shrugged and knocked back the drink. "I'm guessing that he used to run drugs and got a bit too interpersonal with the merchandise."

Zack shrugged and sniffed his drink. _Should probably save it and pass it on to Highwind for his alternate fuel program._ "Better luck and all that."

Reno took another shot and disposed of it just as quickly. "Thanks. I'll need it. Valentine's going to rip my ass off if I don't find someone. He wants twenty newbies to send for training by the end of the month."

"And you have…" Zack set his glass down and watched another shot disappear down Reno's throat.

"Five." Reno slumped. "I miss Tseng. Man, I miss him. Do you know what Valentine did? Do you?"

Zack shook his head. The last he'd seen of Seph's father had been two weeks ago when he had stopped by The City of the Ancients to pick Seph up. Valentine had been kneeling in his garden serenely thinning out his vegetable garden while Hojo had run around yammering about tidal shifts, wood rot, and mold.

"He's actually requiring that any unauthorized," Reno tried to make little finger quotes around the unauthorized but had problems since he was still holding the shot glass, "property damage has to come out of our salaries. That includes onsite," Reno tried the finger quotes for onsite, but only made marginal progress, "damage. Fuck. I barely had enough pay to cover food for the month and I'm now stuck sleeping in the staff bunks."

Zack nodded in friendly, but false sympathy. "Maybe you can move in with Rude."

Reno snorted then started gasping as alcohol fumes burnt his sinuses. "Rude's staying with Lany since his apartment got trashed in a food riot."

Zack hummed sympathetically and took an experimental sip. It tasted like licorice. Zack hated licorice.

"Zack." Sephiroth walked into the bar and glared warningly at his subordinate. "You missed the meeting."

"Pencil or pen." Zack leaned back and grinned.

"Pencil. We're leaving in five minutes."

**Veld**

The concert wasn't bad. It had the requisite number of musical instruments. The musicians all grimly hit all the correct notes. The conductor had even managed to look like a human being instead of an automation. He just didn't appreciate it. He preferred jazz or maybe a bit of blues. Hell, he'd settle for a good classical orchestra, but chamber music? Valentine was probably enjoying it from his perch on the tops of one of the neighboring buildings. He liked this sort of thing.

Well, if nothing else, the kid was catching up on his sleep. Rufus had made his appearance, shook hands, patted little kiddie heads, made a few gently humorous comments, and generally acted like a benevolent, wheelchaired uncle who had stopped by to visit the family. He then spent the first few minutes of the concert attentively listening to the music. After that, it had only been a downward slide into Rufus snoozing quietly as the rest of the crowd nodded drowsily along with him.

The tempo picked up a bit. The director probably either noticing his audience was sleeping or he was heading for some kind of exciting, chamber music-y wrap-up. Veld hoped it was the wrap-up. It was going to be a long evening and he was eager to get to the main event. Tormenting Tseng. It was all planned out.

After listening to Rufus's accounts, both of Tseng's behavior after Tseng had taken control of the Turks to his about face after the battle, added to his own remembered observations of Tseng, and grilling the other Turks, he'd come to a few conclusions. First, Tseng had been using Reno and sometimes Rude to put distance between himself and witnessing Rufus dating other people. He'd used his position as Turk Leader to arrange for those two to act as bodyguards during those times while he spent the time –according to Rude- redirecting his frustration into nonsensical tasks. Second, Tseng was too caught up in his position as a Turk to recognize that he adored Rufus and Rufus returned those feelings. Someplace, Tseng had gotten it in that dense head of his that Rufus was untouchable and ignored the clues –even the heavy handed "get over here and have sex with me" ones that Rufus handed out. Third, Rufus was going to kill Tseng if something wasn't done quickly. Seeing how much time had been put into training Tseng from the temperamental, undisciplined low-life that he'd been into the Turk he now was, Veld had to do something. He hadn't sacrificed himself up north to keep his kid safe just to see the dumb-ass get his brains blown out by an angry, hurt Rufus.

So, it was time that Tseng got it rubbed in his face. A few well placed kicks to his ego, a bit of smacking around his territorial streak, and a few hits below the belt and his Wutaian protégé would get the hint. If not, at least he'd have a bit of fun with the situation. While he wasn't personally attracted to Rufus, the kid did have a certain charm, mainly being that he was at heart a complete bastard.

As the musician's finally stood to take their bow, Veld nudged Rufus awake. "Hey, time to get busy."

Smothering a yawn, Rufus nodded and dutifully clapped. "Any sign of him yet?"

He shook his head. "He'll be out front waiting like a good little boy."

He managed to look interested as the conductor took his bows. The crowd was stumbling to their feet and looking blearily around. Valentine, now loitering up on one of the terraces that overlooked the small amphitheater shifted slightly to get a better look at the crowd but looked calmly at ease. Veld stood next to Rufus smiling amiably and letting his eyes flick around for any threats. The crowd was peaceful though and after a few minutes of more schmoozing on Rufus's part, they went out to find Tseng standing stiffly next to the car.

As they approached, Rufus glanced over and gave Veld a nearly imperceptible nod. It was time to begin the show.

"That was pretty good." Veld gave Rufus a warm smile. "We should do it again. There's a jazz club opening up that has a good band."

"Sounds promising." Rufus wheeled himself over to where Tseng was waiting. "It beats campfires and over roasted vegetables." He kept his attention focused on Veld, ignoring Tseng as if he were no more than an accessory of the car. "I'd also like to go to the concert down in the old section. Think I could make a recovery and dance on the beach?"

Tseng opened the passenger door and moved to assist Rufus, but Veld shooed Tseng away as the other stepped forward. Tseng's jaw tightened a bit as Veld easily shifted Rufus from the chair into the car, lingering a bit too long before letting the young CEO go. "I could do that. At the end of the evening you could trip and reinjure yourself. Have to go home and get lots of bed rest."

Rufus hummed and reached up to pull Veld into the car by his shirt. "I'm looking forward to it."

If Tseng hadn't gotten the picture that this was not a working meeting, their smashing their lips together and pawing at each other during the trip to the restaurant disabused him of that point of view. They only parted only for a few minutes before they got to their destination to straighten their clothes and hair.

Rufus ran one finger down Veld's tie, flicking it neatly into place. "I do hope this place has better food than the last place you took me to."

Veld watched Tseng's hands tighten slightly on the steering wheel. "Hey, I told you I owed you a good meal."

"You certainly do. I don't usually put out for overcooked hamburgers and canned soup." Rufus gave a husky laugh as Tseng's hands tried to break the steering wheel.

"Considering what you did then, I don't know if I'll survive what you'll do for good food." Veld had to brace himself and Rufus as Tseng slammed to a halt in front of the high-end restaurant's understated front entrance.

Tseng nearly tore his way out of the car and stomped around to fetch the wheelchair and open the passenger door. During their tussle Veld had ended up sitting on the far side of the car, so when Tseng yanked open the passenger door, Rufus smiled blandly up at him. Veld sat smirking unseen on the other side as Tseng put the wheelchair into position and primly helped Rufus into it.

Not wanting to find out if his student would slam the door in his face or any other body part, Veld exited the other side and snaked up to stand behind Rufus before Tseng could. "Open the door for us, kid."

"Of course." Tseng gritted out and stalked over to the restaurant door and nearly wrenched it off its hinges, then stood next to it like a homicidal doorman out of a horror flick.

Veld wheeled Rufus past, "Thanks. Since Valentine is busy now, you have distance surveillance."

Valentine, who had come into town because his loony lover wanted to stock up on assorted nuts, was actually on guard across the street. Tseng was going to be increasingly distracted and neither he nor Valentine wanted a night of playing games with Tseng to turn into an invitation for some ass to take a swipe at Rufus because the opportunity presented itself. However, Tseng had to also witness the little drama they had planned for him, so…

"Stay in the restaurant. Don't go wandering off." Veld called back over his shoulder as the hostess bowed low to Rufus and whisked them off to their table.

They were seated near a window, which would give Valentine a good view both of them and the room behind them. The hostess babbled a few pleasantries, oozed gratitude that Rufus graced them this evening, then after gushing a few promises of nearly selling her soul to make their meal as enjoyable as possible, she reverently handed them their menus and backed away bowing.

Veld helped Rufus out of the wheelchair and into the cushioned chair at the table, making a show of both how weak Rufus supposedly was and also hover a bit too attentively. "Let's make this quick."

Rufus leaned a bit into him, gazing up as if Veld was a wondrous being, or at least a semi-okay being that he was going to be naked with shortly. He even licked his bottom lip suggestively. "We're too eager to bother with the entrée?"

"No. I have plans for the entrée. Just order what I dsay, but after a bit of play, we're heading to the next phase." Veld scooted his chair over so that he was sitting nearly on top of Rufus with their legs and arms brushing against the other's.

Rufus shifted so he was a bit closer, nearly sitting on Veld let his fingers play lightly along Veld's pant leg. Veld, turning a bit in his chair towards Rufus, gave the young blond a playful smile even as he noticed Tseng, quietly fuming and watching every movement they made, lurk by the entrance.

"He's noticing." Veld bent his head to whisper into Rufus's hair. "This is almost too easy."

"Payback's a bitch." Rufus smiled and nuzzled Veld's ear. "What are we having?"

"The cold seafood platter with appetizers of oyster shooters and a side of shrimp crepes." Veld brushed a kiss against Rufus's jaw and watched Tseng's blood pressure rise. "Remember to eat with your fingers and don't use a napkin."

The waitress backed up by the fawning hostess came and delivered crystal goblets of water with sprigs of mint and a twist of lime in them and took their order. After all but declaring that they would happily immolate themselves for their benefit, the two genuflected back to personally take care of their order.

The oysters came in moments thanks to their devoted wait-staff. Pretending to smooth a crisp linen napkin over Rufus's lap, Veld repositioned them slightly so that Tseng would have a perfect view of what they were going to do with those shellfish. He hoped that he didn't spoil the view for Valentine. He wanted his partner to get the full show. He was relatively certain that Vince had positioned himself under a small overhanging statue on the apartment building they were looking out at, which would give him not only a full view of the entire restaurant but Tseng.

Rufus picked up the first shooter. It was in a small shot glass with a mixture of greens and spices. "Okay, now what?"

Veld snitched it from his fingers with a teasing grin, tossed in into his mouth then plastered his mouth over Rufus's. The blond tensed in surprise, then grabbed his shirt collar pulling him closer as he took the oyster back with his tongue.

They separated and Rufus licked his lips. "Nice."

The next one Rufus swirled around in his glass absently with his finger as they looked out over the cityscape. Veld put his arm around Rufus's shoulder looking like he was relaxing. He kept his head bowed slightly so that he looked like he was nibbling on the blond's ear. Rufus, after nearly pulverizing the poor oyster making sure Tseng noticed exactly what he was doing, lifted his hand and cleaned the finger that he had been stiring with by slowly slipping it into his mouth and licking it clean while keeping his eyes locked with Veld. To make sure the point was taken, he pulled his finger out and pushed it back in a few times and ended with flicking his tongue across his fingertip as he withdrew it the last time.

Veld awarded the performance with a heated kiss, then whispered as he nuzzled another kiss on Rufus's lips. "Tseng might not survive to the entrée."

"He's a big boy. He can take it." Rufus's voice held a tone of gleeful malice as he reached for the next shooter.

Veld beat him to it and tossed it down making sure a bit of the sauce dribbled down his chin. Rufus took the cue and swooped in to lick it off.

They proceeded through the meal nibbling on shrimp, sucking on crab legs, sensuously licking melted butter off their fingers, feeding each other slender crepes dripping with creamy sauce, and pushing delicate bits of pink abalone between each other's lips. After they were done, their worshipful wait-staff looked like they wanted a post-coital cigarette, and Tseng was looking grimly pale. Rufus however was now inspecting the desert menu.

"Come on, we've got to wrap this up." Veld nudged him. "We don't want to overplay our hand."

Rufus pouted, his eyes sliding to where Tseng stood his vigil. "Fine. Fine. Though the chocolate mousse is tempting."

Veld merely lifted his hand and a check appeared on the table. It only took a moment and a quick shift –with a few gratuitous gropes- and they were out the door with Tseng pulling the car around to take them to Rufus's apartment.

Once again they mauled each other in the back of the car and only broke apart when the car came to a halt in front of the luxurious building, each of them looking thoroughly pleased with themselves. Which, Veld admitted they were. They could practically hear the enamel of Tseng's teeth cracking from the back of the car.

Tseng did try to make a break for freedom when Rufus motioned for him to take the car around to the parking garage, but Veld cut it short. "Remember kid, you've got guard duty tonight. Rude and Reno are out of town, Valentine's still busy, and you're the one left."

"You could…" Tseng growled ducking his head as Rufus turned to look at him with a snotty look.

"Veld's off duty." Rufus looked away with the air of someone avoiding looking at a cockroach.

"Yes, sir." Tseng took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders with the determination of a man going to his own execution.

So up they went to the penthouse, and Tseng arrived a couple of moments later to take a station in the front hall.

As soon as the door closed, Rufus got out of the wheelchair and sauntered into his room. "I'm going to take a shower."

"Want some company?" Veld gave him a playful leer, but knew before he asked that it was going to be turned down. He, himself, had planned this shower, the question, and its denial. He needed a bit of alone time with his protégé.

"Tempting…" Rufus gave him a grin, "but no. I'll be out in a few minutes, then we can find something interesting to do."

Veld nodded and flopped into an overstuffed chair. "I'll be waiting."

Rufus ambled off leaving his Turks alone.

Veld looked over at Tseng. "Want to tell me about it now? Or do you want me to drag it out of you tomorrow?"

"I am your boss." Tseng grumbled.

"Reeeaaallllyyyy?" Veld grinned. "And we both know just what kind of fuck up you really are, so do you want me to let you screw yourself over now, or should I sit back wait for the cluster fuck later?"

"I hate you." His favorite student hissed.

"I know, and you don't know how that fills me with a warm, fuzzy feeling of hominess." Veld stretched cat like, purring in contentment as he surveyed his prey. "Now, spit it out, or do you want me to?"

"I have nothing to say." Tseng glanced around the apartment as if surveying it for any lingering threats.

Veld, sure that Valentine had already made it here, swept the place, and was now keeping tabs on Rufus, snickered. "Sure you do, but since you're being shy and demure tonight, let me start."

"I really hate you." Tseng tried edging away, but duty held him in place.

"You like golden boy there." Veld nodded to where Rufus could be heard showering though Veld doubted the blond was actually in there getting wet. "And you can't stand the thought that you blew it and I stepped in, got your job, and your guy."

"He's not my…"

"Oh really? So, if I fuck him right here on the sofa," Veld nudged the long, overly pillowed, plush sofa that was arranged next to the chair with his foot, "you'll just stand there thinking security things, and maybe think a few thoughts about trying out a few new positions next time you find a fuck buddy?"

Tseng glared at the sofa a second then looked away.

"It really must bite that Rufus is going to be fucking me too." Veld flicked his fingers airily. "After all, isn't that your excuse? That you can't possibly have Rufus because you're his Turk? No fraternizing with the boss? No dropping your panties like some pathetic paper-pusher looking for a way up the corporate ladder one fuck at a time?"

Veld grinned as Tseng's eyes flicked towards him with a trace of a frown on his face then skittered away to stare directly ahead. He'd worn the same expression on his face every time Veld had called him into his office to have him explain, yet again, where his brain had trotted off to since it was clear it was on vacation someplace. It was his expression of guilt and irritation that he got caught again.

"Professional conduct…" Tseng tried a verbal dodge, but got cut off.

"Doesn't mean shit in the Turks." Veld shook his head. "Turks get the job done. If the job needs us to be corporate suits, then we play corporate suits. If the job needs us to get dirty, we get dirty. No place in Turk regulations does it say anything about professional codes. The closest we get is the uniform and that's purely intimidation value."

"Things have changed since you were in charge." Tseng's eyes narrowed. "We're professionals."

"We're criminals that saw a way to get out of the cesspool and into the caviar dish." Veld smirked. "Behind your suit and perfect hair, you're still the low-life rat with a murderous temper that slithered into my office looking for a chance at nibbling crumbs off Shinra's plate."

Tseng huffed and looked away.

"And I'm still the low-life that hired you." Veld put his feet up on the coffee table. "The low-life that's going to spend the evening fucking Rufus Shinra right into the mattress of his plush bed."

Tseng was getting tenser and Veld could detect a fine twitch in his fingers. His kid was getting riled up. He'd either explode, or he'd freeze. Seeing that he generally humiliated Tseng when he exploded, Veld was guessing the kid would freeze.

"But you're used to that aren't you?" Veld settled deeper into the chair, feigning relaxation. He wouldn't truly relax until Tseng finally got the idea and trundled off to take his place in Rufus's bed. "Watching Rufus screw around…no wait. I take that back. You're used to sending Reno, Rude, or Elena to watch Rufus screw around."

Veld was a little surprised when instead of exploding or freezing, Tseng came up with a third action. He wilted.

"I made a mistake."

Veld only nodded. He got what he wanted and now would wait for his kid to tell him the problem so he could fix it. He guessed it was more than just professional ethics. There was something else, but he couldn't help if the idiot kept it to himself.

"After Rufus got injured, when Shinra tower collapsed…" Tseng was looking almost desperately around the apartment. "I got too involved."

Veld wondered if Tseng realized Rufus had been standing in the hall for a while now then guessed his kid was too upset to see. "Too involved?"

"He ordered me to have sex with him." Tseng refused to look at his teacher. "I knew he was lonely and scared. I should have dealt with the situation better. I should have acted more professionally."

Veld knew that much from a conversation with Rude. Reno had kept his mouth closed like a good Turk, but his partner was a bit more perceptive about what the difference between Turkish loyalty and stupidly keeping vital information away from people who needed it to fix the situation. Reno certainly couldn't break through Tseng's walls, and even if he did, he wouldn't have been able to recognize the problem. Rude was patient enough to do it, but didn't have enough pull with Tseng to get him to listen if he did breach Tseng's defenses. Elena was too emotional and too inexperienced to do more than offer sympathy. So that had left him and Rufus, and Rufus needed to hear a few things first.

"I got too involved. I started caring too much for him then Rufus was cured and went back to work." Tseng took a few steps forward, glancing up at his mentor ashamed and expecting to see the disappointment and anger that he deserved. "I was left with a sore ass and a list of orders. I was just…stress relief."

"No you weren't." Rufus stepped into the room.

Tseng jerked his head up startled. "Sir…I…"

Veld slid to his feet. "I'll leave it to you then, Rufus." He gave a brief salute to his true boss and walked out to stand guard in the hall. His acting duties were done for the evening, but his Turk duties still remained.

After a bit, Valentine ghosted up. "I was wondering just how far you were going to take that."

"He'd be a good lay." Veld shrugged. "But I'd probably have come down with a stomachache. I don't like poaching. He's Tseng's."

"Hmph. You owe me a bottle of wine. I told you Tseng bottomed." His partner tipped his head listening for a second. "Still does too."

"That was fast." Veld turned his head to listen for a moment then went back to keeping watch. "Cabernet or merlot?"

"Surprise me." Valentine walked down the hall heading to another position to make sure the president was safe for the evening. "When will you be home?"

"Next week. I want to look over those recruits. I'm so short handed that I might steal one of the more promising ones for some practical experience in the field." Veld settled himself into guard stance as Valentine paused.

"I'll look them over for any likely ones. We'll also get Yuffie out of your room."

"Thanks. I miss my bed."

"You're getting old."

"Says the man who's pushing sixty."

"I could leave Yuffie where she is."

"Bastard."

"Learned from the best."

* * *

Thank you for the reviews. I'm sorry I haven't responded to all of them, but I have appreciated each one. It's nice to know that you are enjoying this, and it gives me a bit of a lift to read that you are happy with what I've written.


	23. Life

In case you are wondering, it took me five tries before I settled on this version. I'm posting it quick before I change my mind again. I managed to do a quick proofread but will wait for my beta to do the final.

**Now a Monster**

**Chapter 23: Life**

**Vincent**

Lunch was over and my chick was out playing in the garden. I had managed to rebuild a wall to keep him from roving through my seedlings, but he still insisted on "taking care of the plants" when he thought I was too busy with work. What this involved, I wasn't entirely sure, but I had no intention of ever eating anything out of the garden without first having it undergo a complete scientific screening. The vegetables were looking just a bit odd lately.

However, odd vegetables or not, partners bringing gifts were not to be ignored.

"I thought you'd like these back." Veld opened the box he'd placed on the kitchen table and pulled it open. "I found them laying about in the weapons locker."

Before he finished, I knew what he had in there and I wasn't disappointed. He pulled out a cloth and leather wrapped bundle that was shaped like my battle gauntlet that I'd left behind in Corel and a case I knew held Cerberus. I picked up the gauntlet and started unwrapping it. Veld opened the case taking out Cerberus.

"This is really a beauty." He held it turning it in his hands and admiring the craftsmanship.

By the looks of both of the weapons, he'd taken the time to have them cleaned and polished. Not that I expected less; Veld was a Turk down to his bone marrow. He couldn't let a good weapon stay tarnished, or worse rusted and not feel somehow personally violated.

"I hope you don't mind, but when I took them in for cleaning, I asked the gunsmith to make me one too." He set it back in its case where it fit neatly in form fitting foam spaces. "He said he couldn't, so he took the specs and sent them to a weapon smith over by Gongaga."

"I met him." I set the gauntlet back down. "He's good. If he needs to see Cerberus, let me know and I'll bring it to him."

"Thanks." Veld clicked the case shut.

"No. Thank you." I stepped out of the kitchen and went to sit on the tiny couch in the living room, picking my glass of the Carmenere wine that Veld had brought to settle out bet. It was a lovely, spicy wine with a dark, dark hue of red.

He took his own wine and settled in the armchair across from me with a sigh. "How's the training?"

I sipped and shrugged. "Not too bad. I put aside a few candidates for you. There's one with a degree in political science that you might want to take with you. He's smart, not too bad with weapons, and a bit of personal attention will probably save his face from getting blown off."

Veld grinned. "Making friends already is he?"

"He's not going to be wildly missed." I sat a moment breathing the wine enjoying the warm scents.

Veld hummed and closed his eyes, relaxing into the seat. He'd dragged himself in during the very early morning and had grunted a few greetings to me before collapsing fully clothed onto his bed and falling asleep. I had managed to take his shoes off and pull a blanket over him before leaving him to his sleep.

"Tseng resigned yesterday." Veld decided to share. "Some garbage about conflict of interests and other high ideals. Why did the boy go and get a conscience?"

"Who's taking his place?" I felt suddenly leery. I had no wish to pull my fragile lover out of his safe, peaceful nest and drag him back to the shark pool of Shinra. Hojo had a nice garden to do unspeakable things to innocent vegetables in, plenty of squid to experiment on and pour hollandaise sauce over, flocks of Tewits to molest, and a community that considered him just one of the family, probably a crazy uncle, but still family. If Rufus did as I suspected, then I would have to either leave him alone more than I liked, or we'd have to relocate to Junon.

Veld raise his glass in a mocking salute. "Me. Ain't it great."

Damn. I hoped there was a nice house in the lower section of Junon where my hatchling could still have at least the illusion of quiet while I dealt with running the Turks. Or maybe leaving him here while I was away would be better. To take him back to anywhere close to Shinra was dangerous, both for him and for any stray people that might get caught when he melted down from the stress and nerve grinding, back stabbing reality that passed as normal operating procedure there. Rufus was a far better man than his father had been, but his company had the entrenched tradition of survival of the fittest that routinely played out in vicious, vindictive games of humiliation, violence, and murderous power struggles over even the most mundane things.

Veld looked equally thrilled. If he got any more happy about his promotion, I suspected Tseng and his reproductive capacities were going to part ways. "I get a spiffy new office and everything," he ground out in a merrily homicidal tone as a smile that looked more like a Nibel wolf baring his fangs spread across his face.

"Wonderful." I considered going to Junon to explain to Tseng just how unhappy I was about this situation and just how important conflict of interest really was in the life of a Turk. Rufus would probably pout about his playmate's sudden departure from the land of the healthy, or depending on how thick Tseng was, the land of the living, but he'd get over it…eventually. After all, accidents happen all the time and Junon was a dangerous place to live. Even walking across a street was rife with all sorts of hazards.

"I'll deal with it." Veld caught my eye, frowning a little to stress his point. _Don't touch my mini-me. I'll spank him myself._

I gave my partner a pointed look and sipped my wine. _Handle it before it becomes my problem._ "I don't feel like relocating."

"Are you thinking of leaving?" Reeve poked his head in my door causing Veld to stop slouching and to sit up.

"I certainly am not planning on it." I gestured toward the wine, fulfilling my partner's undisclosed wish to prolong Reeve's presence. "Would you care for some wine?"

Veld's eyes skittered appreciatively all over Reeve as the tired executive made his way across to the wine and poured himself a glass. I hadn't been completely surprised when I noticed Veld's attention straying my friend's way. Reeve possessed many qualities that Veld liked: intelligence, humor, determination, and a quirky sense of adventure. I wasn't as sure about Reeve's attraction to Veld though. My friend had shown a preference for a more intellectual, aesthetic type which Veld definitely was not. I also had a few concerns about Veld getting involved with someone who would eventually die and leave him. Until Chaos hied himself back to the lifestream and his system purged itself from the cocktail of g-genes, Jenova cells, and mako that Lucrecia had injected him with, he was virtually immortal. Of course that brought up another set of problems about who would be a good match for him seeing that the few immortals that were around were all partnered: me with Hojo, Cloud surprisingly was showing signs of lusting after my son, who was lusting right back, and Zack was still loyal to Aeris. The only other person who was a possibility was Elena, who we were watching for any hints of immortality. Not that I saw that as a viable possibility in the near future. She was still too eager and impressionable. Tossing her into a date with Veld would be like tossing a perky synchronized swimmer into a broken shark cage in the middle of the ocean, chumming the water, then jetting away at top speed to a local bar for margaritas.

"Just don't tell the doctor that I'm doing this." Reeve settled onto the couch next to me. "I'm supposed to be on an all bland food diet." He gave a puckish, conspiratorial grin. "I did cheat a bit yesterday…I had muffin."

"Living dangerous…" Veld snickered a little. "A muffin yesterday, a glass of wine this afternoon, tomorrow…who knows, maybe you'll go really wild and have a burger with fries."

I watched as Reeve perked up and snipped a retort back and in a moment they were too involved playing their game to notice me. I waited for another moment before sliding off the couch and slipping out of their way. Veld gave me a small tip of his glass in farewell. Reeve was laughing too hard and trying to come up with a good comeback to realize I was out the door before he caught his breath to return the verbal volley my partner had aimed at him to ensure my escape.

Maybe it would work.

The afternoon was warm, but a pleasant cool breeze was whisking playfully through the trees of The City. Many of the people who had originally arrived here from Bone Village had chosen to remain, preferring the more mild climate to the ice and permafrost of their former home. Those from the northern continents had all returned home leaving many of the formerly overcrowded shell houses free. These had been eagerly grabbed up by those who had been cramped into the tiny houses or those who wanted to start their own businesses.

Cloud was sitting on the wall next to my chick. From the large scuff marks at Cloud's feet I could tell that they'd been sitting there for awhile.. My chick however seemed calm despite the nervous trenches that were being excavated next to him.

"…so he died?" Cloud started intently down at his still moving feet.

My hatchling nodded. "A sword through the stomach causes massive hemorrhaging, not to mention releasing digestive acids into the abdominal cavity. By the time he was brought to me, he only had a few minutes to live."

"Did you try?" Cloud dug his toe into the earth.

Hojo blinked, looking a bit surprised. "You're here, aren't you?"

"But did you try to save him?" Cloud looked up frowning.

"He was beyond saving. I made him comfortable and focused trying to save Fair." Hojo noticed me lurking by the door and waved me away. "He had more of a chance at surviving, but the damage done to his spinal column and the clumsy handling he received from the dolts that rescued him were too much."

Cloud went back to excavating a small portion of my garden and obeying my chick's wordless request to talk to Cloud privately, I went off to keep myself busy. It wouldn't be hard. Yuffie was probably lurking around somewhere waiting to trap me into another history lesson. Someplace in that larcenous mind, she decided that she wanted to be a good ruler for her nation, so was trying to "improve" herself by nagging various people into tutoring her. She managed to line up my chick for weekly biology lessons (which made most of Avalanche and all of Shinra wince), political science from Reeve (which calmed our frazzled nerves a little), math from Davies (a wise choice seeing he'd kept Bone Village's books for decades), and for some bizarre reason, me for history. Maybe she thought since I was one of the oldest people she knew, I would know more about history.

Zack and my son were also easy enough to find. One of the few people that had migrated back to Bone Village had been Cooper and his clan, thus leaving Cooper's Café vacant. Zack, after being met with a closed door and an abandoned shop, had loitered around the front of the place with the rest of The City's caffeine deprived inhabitants, until inspiration struck. He reopened Cooper's Café as A Fair Cup of Coffee, and he, Cloud, and Sephiroth had taken up residence in the large shell house next door. While my son was kept busy reinventing the Soldier program with the combined backing of WRO and Shinra, he still managed to spend most of his time in ogling distance of Cloud from one of Zack's street front tables. He was due back today from a meeting with Costa del Sol's mayor where he discussed using some of the land to the west as a desert training facility.

I was nearly at the café when the last of my recently acquired distractions caught up with me.

"Vincent, do you have a minute?" Tifa came up to me looking uncertain, as if she still expected me to brush her away.

I suppose she had good reasons for her hesitation. The rest of Avalanche was not being forgiving. Cloud barely acknowledged her presence. Cid, Yuffie, and Reeve only spoke with her in short, terse sentences, and rebuffed any attempt of hers to apologize. Only Nanaki and I had taken the time to pause and listen to what she had to say.

It hadn't been a complicated story or a surprising one at heart, though. What had happened was that she had been through one Planet destroying crisis too many. She'd lost too much and she tried to desperately cling to what she had, falling back on what she had perceived as certainties: Cloud would save her, Avalanche would stick together, we protect each other from Shinra, we'd fight the bad guys, we'd triumph over our enemies, and above all she had to keep the children safe. New things, like Hojo not being a bad person, that Avalanche was disintegrating, and demons threatening the children had been too much. She had started losing things, making her want to cling tighter to what she had. Her tight grip had strangled the very things she had wanted to keep close to her which caused her to spin emotionally out of control.

She didn't see that though. She only saw all the bad things she had done and none of the circumstances surrounding and influencing her actions. I had put it together slowly over a period of months as she came to me, needing someone to just listen as she tried to understand how things went so very wrong. She was still too close to the guilt she felt for how she acted towards her friends, the grief she felt for losing Barret, and the anger at life in general that no matter how hard she and the rest of us tried, none of us seemed to be able to just live quiet, happy lives.

"I was just going to get some coffee." I gave her a polite bow. "Would you allow me to buy you a cup?"

Her relieved smile answered me and she fell in step at my side. "I was hoping to ask your advice on what to do with Marlene."

Once she would have gone to Cloud with that problem, but Cloud was still too hurt to discuss even common daily things with her. I only partially hoped that he'd get his head together before the rift between him and Tifa separated him from the children as well. Marlene had not taken her father's death well, and while Tifa was trying her best to comfort the child, Marlene needed to know she still had her second family of Cloud, Tifa, and Denzel around her. However, I had been toying with other ideas.

"She's still having nightmares." Tifa waved a small hello to Zack as we entered the café. "I was hoping that maybe Veld might talk to her about what happened to Barret since he was there."

I had heard from Veld and Hojo what had happened to Barret in Deepground's labs. After the battle, we had returned to see if there was any chance to save the man, but the creature that we found wasn't savable. It had been a mercy to put a bullet through its head and let it die. While I had wanted Barret to pay for what he had done to my chick, I had felt nothing but pity when I pulled the trigger.

"I don't think she's ready to hear that." I pulled out a chair for her to seat herself then settled into the one opposite her. "There was nothing, even if we kept most of the facts from her, that could comfort her. It would be better to keep telling her that her father died fighting Lucrecia."

Tifa nodded, "I understand, but she's so frightened…by demons, by being alone…I made the mistake of saying that we should go back to Edge and try helping rebuild. She started crying and wouldn't stop. She thinks the demons will come and get her."

Zack bounced merrily out to see us, pen and paper in hand. I don't think I ever really saw him write an order down, but he enjoyed playing the part, much to my overworked son's disgust. "Hey, my two favorite customers! Let me guess! Let me guess! One coffee extra-dark, no cream, two sugars and a latte, one sugar and extra cream."

Tifa smiled gratefully, "You know me so well."

I nodded, "Make mine with cream instead of milk and no sugar this time."

Zack laughed. "Hojo still trying to fatten you up?"

I didn't feel like confessing that his coffee could even dissolve my Turk hardened taste buds, or that Tifa just played with her own devil's brew. Zack and his fight with his new machinery was still in the chancy stage where the espresso machine could still defeat him. The stories of Zack getting doused in steaming espresso, having the coffee grinder waddling after him like it had been possessed, and cups of coffee eating through their thick paper cups to douse him in bitter acidic brew were still whispered in the houses of The City. Still, seeing that it was this coffee or trekking through the Sleeping Forest for Cooper's watered down coffee, people just ordered their cup, took it home, and doctored it into a less threatening consistency. The few that inhabited the chairs at the café were there to talk, not to actually drink the beverage that was in front of them. The City was still hopeful though that someday good coffee would be ours.

I turned back to Tifa once Zack, unmarred paper and unused pencil still in hand, romped merrily away to battle with the gleaming machinery that seemed destined to triumph. "Do you want to leave?"

"I thought it might be better…for Cloud." She nodded to where Cloud and his friends lived. "He doesn't seem to want me here." She looked away. "And I don't blame him."

I considered for a moment. I have to admit it was a completely selfish thought that came into my head, but it was a good one. "Why not move to Junon."

My selfish thought was actually that if she moved to Junon, she could probably be convinced to open another bar. It would be easy enough to pull a few strings, and she'd get a nice bar in an affluent section of Junon. In fact, I was planning on having it nice and close to Shinra headquarters. There, I could practically guarantee that she would have an active clientele of thirsty Turks that would need someone who could smack them silly if they tried to get out of line. I could also guarantee that she'd have a loyal customer of one tall, silent Turk, who still faithfully adored her even if she barely noted his existence.

"Junon?" She gave a little nervous laugh. "Why there?"

"It was safe during the attacks, which might sooth Marlene's nerves." I heard a muffled yell from the store and glanced in to see Zack jumping around covered in what looked like steamed cream.

She had also glanced over. "You would come visit?"

"I'm in Junon regularly." I kept to myself the fact that I would make sure her new apartment would be close to Veld's. Tifa was a very valuable person, not only in fighting skills, but also as an organizer, and in her lack of morals when it came to killing. She had been both directly responsible for most of the refugee care in Junon, and while it had been badly overloaded, without her skill, it could have been far, far worse, and she had been a participant in terrorist actions that cost the lives of hundreds of innocent people. It might take some time, but I was sure that I could eventually pull her over into being a very helpful, unofficial operative of the Turks. After all, she'd lost everything she had known, her fellow terrorist Barret had met a grizzly death, she'd been abandoned by her friends, and she was searching for some kind of stability in her life. With a bit of care, she'd maintain her loyalty to me, then transfer it to Veld and perhaps Rude, then little by little she'd be surrounded by Turk friends. In a few years, she'd be happily whacking Turks across the back of the head for bad manners, keeping a motherly eye on lost recruits, and providing all of us with a quiet sanctuary from Shinra's self0directed cannibalism. Besides, it would make keeping an eye on her very easy to do. "It would be nice to have a friend there."

By the time Zack won the battle, but not the war, and brought us our coffee, Tifa was considering what schools to send the children to, what the employment market was like there, and how much an apartment would cost her. I kept up my end of the conversation while making a mental list of things to do to ensure her happiness. It wouldn't take much, not when I had all of Shinra behind me, to ensure that the small things she was worrying about, like if she could afford a three bedroom apartment or if Marlene and Denzel could still share a room, would evaporate into smiles and ease. The apartment and the bar were pretty much a given. I just needed to drop the right words in the right ears. Once she got to Junon, I could easily find out what suppliers she wanted to deal with and have Veld negotiate amazing deals for her, which would put her in the position of being grateful to him for his help. Elena, under the guise of needing something to do while she was recovering from Lucrecia's treatments, could chatter with Tifa, maybe become her newest best friend, and help her put the bar's fixtures together. Rude would probably sell his soul for the chance to help Elena's friend Tifa to move into an apartment, and Reno could haul everyone around one day to find Tifa one of the best deals on a car that could be found on the Planet. By the time Tifa's bar opened, Tifa would be already slipping neatly into the Turk's orbit.

"Don't worry too much, Tifa." I had walked her to her door. "I can look into things next time I'm there."

She seemed happier than she had for months. "Thank you, Vincent. I really hope this works."

I bowed politely and left. I trusted that she could handle Marlene. I had inserted enough small comments about how safe Junon was, and how living in a completely new place might help Marlene, that I felt that Tifa could convince the child, or at least quiet her down long enough to relocate. I ambled home contemplating whether or not to arrange for Marlene to be seen by a psychologist and what type of school the child would fit into best.

When I opened the front door, Veld was sitting contentedly at the kitchen table flipping through the last of the files, Reeve had disappeared back into his haze of being a workaholic, Yuffie had reappeared, and Hojo was down on his knees rummaging through a box.

My chick was in chocobo heaven.

"Zeio nuts…" He was kneeling in front of the box fondling nuts. "You use these to breed gold chocobos. It has to be some enzyme that works to release recumbent DNA."

Veld gave Hojo a wary look. A look that clearly said that if my hatchling got any ideas of unlocking any DNA that wasn't from something birdlike, he was jumping out a window and finding heavy armament. I sympathized with the look, but I'd be leaping for the door, and I was going to be cooking for the next few months.

"Have I mentioned I have a nut allergy?" Yuffie volunteered from where she was squished into my favorite arm chair reading a textbook on the history of the Eastern Continent.

I had to wonder who had sent him these nuts. The squid had been so perfect. They were small, they were harmless, and most important, they had been far, far away from me and the place I lived. I had a short list of suspects. I made a quick vow to find the soul responsible and deal with their assault on the peace and, aside from a few mutated vegetables, sanity of my home. I was suddenly wrenched out of my thoughts as my chick grabbed the front of my shirt, looking at me with beseeching eyes.

"You will let me won't you?" He looked so hopeful that I wanted to instantly say yes.

Cursing myself for not paying attention, I grabbed what shreds of self preservation I could reach and hedged. "Depends."

"They won't be in the way. We could put them down in the lower garden." His eyes started begging.

I quickly added up the few facts that I had and came out with chocobos in my garden. "No."

"But…" He can make his eyes look very big, soft, and innocent when he puts the effort into it. Damn him. "Think of the scientific gains that could be made, the children with failure to thrive syndrome that could be benefited, the elderly, the sick…"

"The people that need materia stuck in their bodies…" Veld chimed in. He could hold a grudge, but thankfully he'd settled for needling Hojo about his exploits as a scientist instead of firing bullets. He liked making his victims suffer.

"Don't forget mako tanks!" Yuffie joined in the fun. "And mutants!"

Picturing mutated chocobos ripping apart my garden, I shook my head. My chick was wilting under the united front of his housemates. I forced myself not to give in to the impulse to sooth away the unhappiness I could see tugging his shoulders down, to give him what he wanted so he could return to warking happily about his nuts. I hated seeing him wilt. "The town pens are not far away."

"I suppose the walk would do me good." He mumbled glancing away, his bouncy mood evaporating.

"Yes. It would." I frowned over at Yuffie. I accepted Veld's payback but as far as I could tell my hatchling never harmed her. "You could walk with me in the morning. I pass by the pens on the way to the training center."

He perked up a little at that idea and went back to play with his nuts looking thoughtful. Yuffie hid behind her book, pretending that a famine that had wiped out a third of the population six hundred years ago was fascinating. Veld just went back to the files that were stacked on the chairs, floor, and table looking for one candidate that might have enough skill and sense to take back with him to Junon.

"Hey, anyone here?" Zack poked his head in the door. Spotting me he grinned. "Seph wants to talk to you. Something about a missing case of Cheezi String that somehow just turned up in your kiddies' barracks."

"Cheezi String?" Veld looked suspiciously at the pile of folders. "They're stealing Cheezi String…and getting caught…"

As a Turk, I felt embarrassed for my organization. "I'll deal with it."

And there would be a few less files for Veld to wade through.

"Okie-dokie." Zack came in enough to lounge in the door. "Seph thought you'd like to handle it. He just wants to know if you can retrieve the box of frozen honey buns from them too. Breakfast just hasn't been the same without them."

"Excuse me." Veld got up and headed for the door. "I'll look over those pens on my way over to the training center. I think I need to meet our recruits personally. Get a feel for them."

Which meant that he was going to throttle them with his own hands.

"Aren't you supposed to be serving disgusting coffee?" Yuffie lost her enthusiasm for piles of dead bodies in favor of poking at Zack. I could see a teenage crush forming there, but I trusted Zack to handle it carefully.

"Don't get between Seph and his honey buns." Zack's mouth tipped into a slightly naughty smile.

Hojo, still playing with his nuts, nodded absently. "He has a sweet tooth."

"You're kidding!" Yuffie abandoned the plague in favor of plaguing Zack. "The great General Sephiroth…"

"Yes?" My son stepped behind his onetime second in command and arched an eyebrow at Yuffie.

Hojo homed in on him like a heat seeking missile. His eyes scanned every inch of our son, his over intelligent brain analyzed the data, and he did what all father's who've raised children do. "Where did you find that outfit!" It wasn't a question. It was a statement of disbelief. "You have noticed it's cold out."

Sephiroth glanced guiltily down at the rather casual pair of chinos and cotton shirt he had no doubt put on before walking over. He'd probably traveled over in one of the military transports that still made periodic sweeps past all of Lucrecia's past targets, then taken a shower, and absently got dressed to come visit.

"You'll catch a cold!" My chick made it sound like Sephiroth had managed to get his hands on the black materia again and had summoned another meteor. "Where's your sweater?"

My son, no doubt remembering some long ago grief, looked slyly at Zack then innocently looked back at Hojo. "Zack took it. I came over to see if I could borrow one of father's."

That settled my chick down, though he did look evilly at Zack for no doubt endangering our delicate son's health. "Of course. I'll get you one." He instantly raced off to raid my limited closet for the required item.

I could freeze, but Sephiroth was to be always warmly dressed.

"Your recruits are out of control." Sephiroth walked in and settled onto the sofa. "They're like frat boys on an eating binge."

"They're being dealt with." I really was embarrassed. Ultimately, they were my responsibility. I had hired a crew of teachers that were supposed to instill discipline into their dense skulls and keep them in line, but I was the one who was in charge of them.

Sephiroth nodded stretching his long legs out with a relieved sigh. "You're going to need better recruits."

"I noticed."

And I had. Reno had displayed an amazing talent for finding the lowest, stupidest scum that could be troweled out of the cesspits of the Planet for me to train. After the first few days of training, I had come to the conclusion that most of the recruits were going to have brilliant careers as runners for some half-brained drug dealer. They just wanted flash, a gun, and the power to mouth off to whoever they wanted without repercussions. It was a rude awakening for them to find that they got crude cabins, poor rations, and me. By the time Veld got done with them, they'd think nostalgically about my rousting them before dawn, marathon obstacle courses, and chewing their asses off…at least the ones that survived would.

"Hmph." He arched his back and I could hear it pop. "I was going to ask if I could recruit some of your better candidates into the Soldier program."

"Find your own." I looked over to find Zack and Yuffie had run off to the garden, no doubt planning something. I didn't want to know, so I closed the door and took over my armchair. "I'm going to be a few short tomorrow as it is."

My son shrugged. "We could recruit together. It would save time and effort."

I mulled it over as my chick romped down the stairs and bustled our son into my only sweater. Not that I was overly attached to it. I'd inherited it from Davies after Bettina had cleared out his closet. It was too bulky for me, but it had been warm enough. I supposed I'd have to get some new clothes next time I was in town. Davies would probably order them for me.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Hojo was back with his nuts, packing them away, thankfully.

"No." Sephiroth made a small face. "You know that travel makes me queasy."

No actually I hadn't, but Hojo tutted softly. "I'll make you some warm milk and toast. That always settles your stomach."

My chick bustled off to the kitchen to put his limited culinary skills to the test, while our son glanced around for a way to escape. It was hopeless. Hojo was in full father mode and nothing was going to get in the way of him taking care of his son. I'd watched this small routine played out one quite a few occasions since coming home, and while Sephiroth looked mildly amused –and a bit skittish when things involved food- he tolerated the flow of attention recognizing it for what it was, Hojo telling him that he was loved.

My son had learned a lot from both that horrid diary –I should have hid it better- and from witnessing just what his mother had done to his father down in Deepground's labs. I think he realized that most of the things that he had blamed Hojo for were really my Hojo's broken attempts at keeping him from the same fate that he had endured under Lucrecia's care. From what Veld told me, Sephiroth had received a none too pleasant view of what his life would have been like. It was more than likely that he had been easily able to picture himself in my chick's place. When we came back from Mideel, Sephiroth had shown amazing amounts of patience, acceptance, and kindness to the man he once had been too ashamed of even acknowledging as possibly being his parent.

"When was the last time you got some sleep?" Hojo was leaning over our son's shoulder. "You are practically falling asleep right now."

"I'm fine." Sephiroth straitened. He had been drifting off.

"After dinner, you go and get some rest." Hojo puttered away again to burn toast. "Have Cloud take on some of your chores. He was just saying that he needs something to do."

That perked Sephiroth up. "Cloud was here?"

"Yes. He wanted to talk to me." Hojo stirred some butter into the milk that was steaming on the stove. "His delivery business is slow right now."

Sephiroth frowned. "He hasn't mentioned that to me."

"He doesn't want to worry you. He says you are overworked as it is." Hojo came back and handed Sephiroth a bowl with questionable milk toast in it. "You should let your brother help you."

Sephiroth, who had taken his first brave bite of his meal, choked and then had to take a moment to remember how to swallow. "Brother?" He finally found the breath to gasp.

Not seeing that he had just torpedoed both of his son's sex life for the foreseeable future, my chick pottered back to the kitchen to clean up. "Of course. You should let him help you out. He's more than willing to help and it would be nice to see you both work together."

My son looked rather stricken, his brilliant mind no doubt was contemplating the many facets of the word incest. "Cloud?"

I couldn't help rubbing it in. It was a rarity to see him so off balance. "Brother's should work together."

Sephiroth mindlessly gulped down his glop like a good boy and finally wandered off to finish meditating on how quickly things could go bad in a romance. Yuffie was off finding people to do unmitigated mischief to with Zack. Cloud was no doubt off being moody. Veld was having quality time retrieving snack food from brainless recruits, and I was home alone with my chick.

My very pouncable chick who was ambling about innocently cleaning the kitchen humming softly to himself no doubt pleased to have ensured his son's health and celibacy for another day.

"Hojo." I pulled myself out of the chair. "Are you busy?"

He looked cluelessly over to me as he put the last dish in the strainer. "No. Not really."

"Do you have something to do later?" I just wanted to make sure. Our alone time had been very limited lately. There was just something about knowing that Yuffie was in the next bedroom that killed all libido.

"Not particularly. I was thinking of putting my nuts away." He hung the dish towel up and tipped his head questioningly at me. "Why?"

I grinned. "You have noticed we are alone right now. Veld's gone. Yuffie's off with Zack. Even Sephiroth and Cloud have disappeared."

Still not getting the implication, he nodded at me looking puzzled. I waited. He was a smart chick. He'd figure it out. It took a second then his mind suddenly put things together and his eyes widened. He bounded for the stairs with me a pace after him, our clothes scattering in our wake.

He has a clever mouth. I had forgotten just how clever it could be, but being the loving, devoted hatchling that I knew him to be, he felt it nothing more than his happy duty to remind me. We'd barely closed the door before he had me on my back on the bed reviving that particular memory. His tongue flirted playfully along my skin as his lips closed around me pulling and caressing.

He was feeling a bit aggressive, his hands and fingers tracing firm patterns along my thighs and stomach, occasionally pausing to press or shift my body into a position he wanted. I didn't mind. I'd had an irritating day and if he wanted to be dominant, I was happy to oblige. I only wondered what had upset him. He only liked the dominant role when he was upset. I'd have to find out later, much later.

His clever mouth decided that it wanted to explore other areas, so it traveled up to reacquaint itself with my belly. I hummed my approval and got a small lick in return.

He paused to look up at me questioningly. "You're quiet."

I supposed I was. "You'll make up for it."

He grinned and got back to what he'd been doing. By the time we tired ourselves out, he was draped bonelessly across me tracing the scar that Ronso had given me with one finger.

"Do you feel like sharing what got you upset?" I pushed a few stray locks of his out of his face.

"Nuth'n." He mumbled slurrily.

He's adorable after sex. That quick mind of his abandons him for a time leaving him befuddled and fuzzy. I tried hard not to use this time for my own purposes, but sometimes it was just too tempting. He was just so endearingly fun to play with at those times.

"Veld didn't do anything." I waited to see if he tensed. That was always the give-away during my post-sex interrogations, but he remained relaxed.

"N'uh." He seemed intent on drifting to sleep.

"Yuffie?" I decided to take this moment to explore his backbone with my fingers. It was a lovely backbone. I felt it deserved a second of appreciation.

He made a muffled negative and wiggled against my hand.

"Did Cloud upset you?" Of course one of the things I loved best about his backbone was that it lead down to his pert bottom.

He shifted slightly so my hand could cup one firm cheek. I spent a moment appreciating the shape and satiny texture. Most people never looked past his hideous fashions of baggy pants, geeky shirts complete with pocket protectors, and ratty lab coats, which I was happily grateful for. Otherwise they'd notice he had an exquisite body with broad shoulders, a slender waist, a firm round bottom, and delightfully long legs. Considering the trouble he had caused me back in the beginning of our relationship, I gave thanks that I didn't have to deal with more competition than I had.

"Noth'in's wrong." He was getting his brain back online which meant it was time to jolt it off line again.

"My turn then."

He laughed as we tumbled across the bed ready to start loving each other again.

* * *

Okay, one last chapter then it's done.

One of you gave me review suggesting that Lucrecia wasn't dead. I have to say that I plan for her to stay in the land of the not-so-dearly departed. I honestly cannot see what more I could do with the story. I might consider doing a few short stories from this arc. For some reason Tifa and Rude are looking good to me as a couple, but I have no plans right now.

Instead, I wish to thank all of you who have taken the time to review this story. I have enjoyed reading your comments and when my life fell apart, they were what brought me back to finish it. Thank you. You just don't realize how important and what a difference you made to me. I know I haven't been able to respond to all of you as I would have liked, but all of your words made a huge difference in my life. Thank you!


	24. Ending

For Gabby, thanks for just being you.

AN: After a protracted battle with my characters, I give up. It breaks my pattern, but Hojo and Vincent want their say, so here they are.

Now A Monster

Chapter 24: Ending

* * *

**Hojo**

My sneaky Turk was prowling around our tiny living room spreading a cloud of angst filled irritation around our otherwise pleasent abode. He had been trying for weeks to avoid telling me that we'd be moving to Junon, hoping that Tseng, who had mysteriously appeared as the head trainer, would go back to work as the Turk's liaison to the board of directors leaving him and Veld to settle back into their normal working relationship as Turk Leaders. Tseng, despite the horrors that an increasingly irritated Veld was throwing at him, seemed to be settling into his role as trainer. Now, my beautiful lover was fretting.

Unfortunately for him, I was going to let him ride it out on his own. I had a few issues to deal with and letting him wallow in misery of his own making kept him from poking that overly curious nose where I didn't need it poking, mainly in my quest to get that lazy dolt Zack Fair to stop serving bad coffee and to return to work as my son's second in command before Sephiroth decided to throw another meteor at the Planet in a fit of frustration over having too much work to do, too few qualified assistants, and not having, as far as I could tell, sex in nearly a decade. My other son, Cloud, was more than eager to help out in many fields, though sex seemed to top his list, but he lacked practical experience dealing with the routine idiocy of bureaucratic mine fields. Zack was the one that was needed, so his coffee serving days were limited.

Vincent, the caffeine addicted Turk, would never even begin to conceive of a notion that would deprive him of his daily intake of coffee-like substances (how he managed to survive for thirty years without a cup is a modern day miracle that even the most hallowed of Ancient lore couldn't rival), so it was up to me to end the coffee flow and send Zack back to work.

So, for the sake of my son, I once again hoisted my armaments and went off to battle. The first task, get out of the house without raising any undo Turkish suspicions. This was simple enough. Indeed, it would only take a matter of moments and my Turk would all but pitch me out of the house himself.

"Vincent! Look!" I waved a catalog that I had snagged of a café table yesterday under his nose as I nearly ran into the living room. "Chocobos! Racing chocobos are being sold at auction today." I latched onto his arm and started dragging him towards the door. "I need to talk to their breeders. They should be there." I waved the magazine again as he looked at me with startled horror. "I could learn so much about those nuts." Still dragging, I looked away as I pretended to ponder. "I wonder what nuts they use and where they get their breeding stock."

Vincent was now struggling, but I kept hold of him, pulling him around the couch and towards the door. The more he struggled, the longer I had to describe the fun day of nuts and birds that awaited him. Poor love, he'd already been hauled to more mind-numbingly boring lectures on the wonders of chocobo sex than any mere mortal could possibly survive and it was starting to take a toll on him. But, I'm a father and a father has to look out for the well-being of his child.

As we reached the door, Vincent latched onto the frame in an attempt at self-preservation. "I have work to do." His eyes darted around a bit wildly as he cudgeled his brain into coming up with an escape plan, the nuts and the chocobos effectively blocking him from his big confession. He knew in his conniving brain that if he offered me a reason to make him feel guilty, he'd be obligated to spend the whole afternoon discussing chocobos chomping on nuts and frolicking with their mates to make the whole trauma of his confession away.

Guilt. It's not only for mothers.

However, I couldn't let him get off too easily, or he'd get suspicious. "It won't take long. I only have a few questions." I gave him a tug. "You don't want me to go alone do you?"

Given the chance, he'd probably ship me bodily to the Gold Saucer to see all the racing chocobos I could wish for. It had taken weeks to train him to have a healthy loathing of all chocobo related activities and my hard work was paying off.

He shook himself gently free and stepped out of arm's reach. "I'm sure you'll be fine." A twinge of guilt passed across his face that I took note of to use later. "I need to…to call Veld about the next round of recruits."

"But…" I put on my best look of disappointment and pretended that I hadn't seen Veld snagging berry pie at Bettina's only an hour before. "…the chocobos…the nuts…"

It was interesting, as I stood there looking unhappy, to see how well my weeks long battle had taken its toll. Weeks of chattering about nuts, nut growing, slyly bringing chocobos home for a "visit" that somehow always ended in part of his garden becoming chocobo dinner had reduced my big bad Turk into a nervous, eye-darting, wreck. I'd have to make it up to him later. My poor darling needed intensive cuddling to sooth away this horrid episode of his life.

"It can't be helped." He, still staying out of lunging range, nodded out the door, encouraging me to leave him behind. "I'll see you tonight." He took a steadying breath and bravely nodded. "You can tell me all about it tonight."

Can you see why I adore him?

Not wanting to overplay my hand, I glanced down dolefully at the magazine. "Are you sure? I could wait awhile."

I had to applaud him for not picking me up and pitching me and my magazine out onto the street. "It will take all day to sort things out for the recruits."

I slumped and dragged myself out, gaining a few guilt points to be used later, then sadly made my way down the street. Only when I was sure I wasn't observed did I perk up and head off to assure my son of a bright future of competent second in commands and getting laid on a regular basis.

**Vincent**

Veld was gloating. I couldn't blame him since I probably looked much the same. Tseng was miserable, thanks to our combined efforts, and was sharing his joy with the other pains in our asses, the recruits. Citing a basic Turk tenant that the only way a Turk retires is by a bullet, Veld had informed Tseng that if he didn't retake his position as a Turk or as the moron sitting on the board of directors, no amount of shagging the president was going to save him from terminal, high-speed, lead poisoning. Thus Tseng, demoted to training coach to the most dumb-assed recruits his inept flunkies could scrape out of the cesspits of the Planet, was now shivering his nights away in a dilapidated cabin that made the recruit's barracks look palacial, taking life-threateningly cold baths in glacial run-off, and eating a diet that could best be described as rodent.

"I could probably go down there and offer him his old job back now." Veld sipped his espresso watching Tseng yell insults at a recruit that had the weapons skill of a blind, geriatric, blu blu. "It's been three weeks, but I just ain't feeling that kind. I've had to listen to Palmer. He's going to suffer this out for at least another week."

I nodded noncommittally. I was trying to keep out of the way of Veld and his protégé's battle of wills. Tseng certainly looked like he was ready to break. His normally immaculate appearance had disintegrated into a scruffy ponytail, a couple of frayed uniforms that looked like mice had nested in them at night, and a pair of ragged gloves that didn't hide the fact that his fingers were settling into a permanent blue tinged color. His cool, I-don't-take-shit demeanor had devolved into a hair trigger temper with periodic bouts of screaming rage punctuated by stunned depression. And as each layer of Tseng's masks dissolved, Veld snickered and added one more tiny insult: no coffee, lye-soap, progress reports in triplicate that had to be laboriously typed out on an old, rusted, manual typewriter, and less and less help to train the recruits.

After all, I couldn't run the Turks and help. Veld certainly wasn't going to miss meetings with the president, and Palmer. Rude and Elena had bodyguard duties. Which only left Reno, who Veld was keeping in the background, no doubt to throw at Tseng at a later date. Veld was merciless when annoyed and being on Shinra's board of directors had him nearly rabid.

I noticed my chick was roving around with his latest prize, a young female chocobo that I had brought back from the chocobo ranch. She was a beauty, one of the chocobo sage's best standard chocobos. She'd cost me a small fortune, but the joy on Hojo's face when I handed her reigns to him was more than enough to make me plan another quick trip to find her a best friend or a mate. The thank you sex had influenced me, too…just a bit.

Veld gave Tseng a mocking salute with his coffee, and turned to amble leisurely back to Bone Village. "We should pick something up for dinner tonight." He headed in the direction of the village store waving hello to a few people that were passing us on their way out to the excavation fields. "Steak, potatoes, maybe some cake. Bettina and the ladies are having a bake sale to raise money for the school." He looked falsely pious. "We need to help out and support out next generation."

"Reeve's joining us." I didn't ask. Just from the menu, I knew Reeve would make an appearance. Veld was trying to fatten his new lover up. Reeve managed to not only snag my partner's attention, but hit all the right cords to bring out Veld's inherent mother-chocobo instincts. I for one was grateful to both parties; to Reeve for saving me from a highly in need of getting laid Veld, and to Veld for taking Reeve in hand to nurse him back to health. I just wished Reeve luck in trying to maneuver around Veld as he had with us and Cait Sith.

"Yep." Veld sauntered into the store waving at Cooper as he headed towards the meats. "He's taking the evening off."

"Does he know that?" I suddenly found my arms full of a pile of steaks, a bag of potatoes, and a ears of corn that were doing their slippery best to escape from their horrid, tasty fate.

"Nope." He paid Cooper, complemented our old friend on his granddaughter's propensity to dance (mainly a two year old's strip tease of twirling around as her shirt, blouse, and undies hit the floor) and we were on our way back through town. "He's coming home this afternoon. The dolt thinks I don't realize that he's spent the last three days running himself to death with back to back meetings, late night work sessions, and a diet of vending machine crackers."

I found that curious. To know that, Veld must have managed to get a mole not only into WRO's upper echelons but into Reeve's personal life. "You planted a secretary, didn't you?"

He shrugged. "He needed a competent one. I just happened to provide him with what he needed. Is it my fault that she worries about him to me?"

"Of course not." I shook my head in mock sympathy that the world would find fault with such a kind, generous act. "It's nice that you both care so deeply about him. He's a lucky man."

"Right." Veld nodded, vindicated. "Before I get distracted, we have to discuss a new benefactor that has been making large deposits to WRO. It's not Rufus, so I'm curious to see who else has the bucks to toss around like that and why they're suddenly being so generous."

"What did Reeve say?" We were headed through the forest, for some reason with me still lugging the groceries.

"Nothing. He doesn't know about it. He's assuming it's Rufus, but Rufus says that it isn't him, that he's budgeted enough for WRO and feels no need to make another large contribution."

I considered that as we made our way home. My chick was probably still out playing with his kinfolk, and the house was blessedly nut free. Veld relieved me of my burden and took over the kitchen leaving me to consider who might want to give away large sums of money and why they might wish to do so. The list was actually surprisingly long and the reasons varied from minor to worrying. Most worrying however was the fact that I had no one to… wait a moment.

"Veld, how would a long, dull accounting assignment work with your plans for Tseng?" I didn't want to interrupt the flow of progress getting Veld back from his bureaucratic hell.

"Only if he does it in the shack and still has to keep up his present schedule." Veld remarked absently as he dug through the refrigerator. "It might do him good. A Turk has to be ready to perform whatever task he is presented with, even under less than optimal circumstances. Besides, he's too well rested."

I nodded. Tseng barely slept now having to deal with the recruits until late than having to wake up in the freezing predawn hours to prepare for the day's training. His streak of perfectionism was working against him there. If he was just a jot less determined and the recruits a tiny bit more intelligent, he'd probably be getting at least adequate sleep. "I'll need him then to go through the accounting records of a few companies."

"He'll love it. Remind me to cut the electricity to his shed." Veld muttered as he peeled potatoes.

**Hojo**

It took me some time to locate Mr. Fair. I had to take my prized chocobo Dilly, who was named by Vincent in an effort I believe to get Veld to tolerate me, from The City, to Bone Village, to the Turk training grounds, back to Bone Village, and even off to the tewit's mating grounds before I finally ran him to ground at Bone Village's store. He had been looking, from what I can tell from his wanderings, for wild chicory to enhance his already doubtful coffee. I didn't want to be the one to break it to him that chicory doesn't grow in these parts. Despite his cheerful nature, I doubt he'd forgiven me for those happy times we shared in the basement of Nibelheim. I hadn't even forgiven myself for that yet and I lived with me.

It had taken some time, mainly while I was enduring lectures on Chocobo reproduction with Vincent sitting in loving, if numbed, support at my side, to come up with a likely strategy to encourage Zack to leave his caffeinated paradise and return to the thankless job of being Sephiroth's second in command. Subtlety was wasted on him though, so I proceeded to smack him over the head, figuratively.

"Why are you here?" I caught him in the candy aisle looking at Cosmo Cocoalicious Carmel Coconut Bars.

He dropped the candy and looked guilty. "Wha…?!"

"Sephiroth! He's…" I looked around as if expecting someone to overhear us and dropped my voice as if it was a private secret. "Didn't he tell you?"

"Tell me what?" He tried to put the candy surreptitiously back onto the shelf.

The problem was that Sephiroth generally told Zack everything. The only way for this to work was to make Zack believe that Sephiroth didn't want him to know because my pig headed son was too proud to admit a weakness. This actually worked well, because Zack would then hesitate to say why he returned to Shinra's loving bosom thus keeping my son from learning about my meddling.

I looked around suspiciously again, as if expecting Sephiroth to be lurking around in the instant mashed potatoes. "Then you aren't aware?"

"Aware of what?" Zack tried edging away from the candy and towards the more respectable, and manly motor oil across the aisle.

"He's being brought in for a full health exam. There have been hints…" I darted my eyes around and craned my head searching for pretend evesdroppers. "…that with all the stress he's been under trying to run Soldier by himself that he's suffering a…" I dropped my voice as if imparting words of utmost doom. "…relapse."

Technically this was true. Sephiroth had been nursing a cold, which I suspect was actually a reaction to the overabundance of mako spawned ash that had been thrown into the air when Chaos had that lovely little get together with Jenova near Kalm. It had dropped Vincent and Veld like an elfadunks on loco weed trying to ice skate two days after the battle. Sephiroth had gotten away with a case of the sniffles and a scratchy throat. I had noted that last time I saw him that his nose was running again and his voice was roughening. I attributed it to too much stress, travel, and a lack of lactose in his diet.

"Relapse." That got Zack's attention. He even moved away from eyeing thirty weight oil. "Like…you know, HER?"

Well, yes, only bits and pieces of her dead, desiccated, never to be brought back after a pissed-off Weapon blasted her down to her component parts. However, Zack didn't need all those qualifiers, so I merely nodded solemnly.

"Whoa. Does Cloud know?" Zack actually looked like thought was going on behind those blue eyes. "You know, just in case?"

"He's helping out as much as possible to keep Sephiroth from…well…getting sick again."

Again true, and I was sure that given even a glimpse of the opportunity Cloud would ecstatically help out even more, preferably in activities that involved lube and repeat performances. It was nice to know my son was willing to give his all to help his big brother.

I sighed theatrically. "But he's only so much help. Sephiroth is under so much pressure and while Cloud is doing his best…"

"He doesn't have experience." Zack actually began to look bright, aware, and intelligent.

I nodded. "Didn't Sephiroth tell you? I could have sworn when he was last up here that he was going to ask you to come back to be his second."

Zack shook his head. "Nope, didn't tell me."

"Oh…" I jerked up as if something suddenly occurred to me. "Oh! Oh, well then…" I backed away as if guilty. "I…uhmmm…guess he decided that he didn't need your…"

"Just how bad is he?" Zack advanced towards me looking rather serious for a eager to please puppy.

I looked around, pretending I wanted to be far, far away from these questions. "If he decided not to tell you, then it can't…"

"Look, Hojo…" Damn I had him hooked. I could have run out of the store and he would have chased me down demanding I tell him my carefully woven net of half-truths.

I shook my head, "You know how he is." I nodded out the door as if Sephiroth was lurking there. "He's just like his father. Stubborn, independent, never wants to ask for help."

"Yeah." A tiny, ruefull smile lurked on Zack's lips. "He'd drop dead before he…" He paused and nodded. "That's it isn't it? He's getting sick and he's keeping it all to himself. Damn him and his pride."

He brushed past me heading out the door still grumbling. "Dumb-ass. He'd drop dead before he ever admits anything to anyone."

I had to make sure. "Wait! Where are you going? You know if he thinks…"

"That I'm helping him? That you're worried? That you told?" He glanced back over his shoulder and winked. "I'll deal with it. Just keep Yuffie out of the cash drawer, will ya?"

I nodded and as he ambled out listing Sephiroth's failings, I smiled. That had gone well, better than I had expected, really. But that wink had told me what I had expected. Zack had just needed one good excuse to head back to where he belonged and only needed a flimsy excuse to gleefully leave behind the dull world of wrestling with espresso machines for the fun of whacking things with larg, sharp…

**The City of the Ancients**

"Hojo?" Vincent called wandering into the shell house. "Did you see where Veld left that file on…never mind. Found it."

Hojo looked up from the laptop he had been working at. He'd been hunched over it since breakfast and his neck and shoulders were getting stiff. "Are you going to add another part to our diary?"

Vincent walked over and looked over Hojo's shoulder, "No, not really. I thought of titillate the world by describing Veld nearly humping Reeve's leg at dinner the other night, but I'd have to live with the payback."

"Who says this is going to be read by anyone but us?" The scientist clicked on save and then shut the computer. "I'm not going to let this out of my sight. I, for one, have learned my lesson."

Vincent tugged his pony tail teasingly, "You learned something? Better put that in there. It's momentous. By the way, we need to discuss the lack of coffee in The City."

"Coffee?"

"You know, that lovely brown, heavenly scented drink that is probably the sole reason I don't smother you with a pillow in the mornings?" Vincent opened the computer. "The divine substance that Zack did his mortal best to supply?"

Hojo shut the computer again. "How about some tea. It's supposed to be better for you."

"I doubt coffee is going to bother me much." The computer was opened again. "And did Sephiroth know that you were interfering with his sex life?"

"That's none of your business." The computer was closed again. "Don't you have new recruits to terrorize?"

Vincent's long, slender fingers spirited away the laptop. "Not right now. Reno's doing it for me. Now what's this about those nuts?"

Hojo, seeing things go badly wrong, made a swipe at the computer which was whisked lightly out of range. "It's no worse than calling me a chick."

"Hmmm." Vincent clicked the computer shut. "I suppose I'll have to make that up to you." He set the computer down on the couch and prowled over to where Hojo was trying to decided whether to run out the door and throw himself into the protection of his children or up the stairs tossing his clothes off.

Vincent prowled closer, letting himself grin at the picture his lover made. Hojo still hadn't noticed that he'd stolen the tie out of his hair, allowing it to fall in a soft sweep of silky black down his back, or that during his writing his glasses had been knocked askew and his shirt had become rumpled, making him look adorably jumpable. However, Vincent noticed for him and had come home on the pretext of needing an unimportant file to see if he could coax Hojo into a leisurely tumble. It wasn't like either of them were needed. Hojo's experiments with chocobos, if they were real, could wait and Vincent had been watching Reno scream obscenities at the recruits all morning while Veld and Reeve were off "comparing a few notes about recent activities that concern both Shinra and WRO" which was Veld speak for screwing Reeve. He didn't mind, indeed, he was inspired to follow his fellow commander's example.

Hojo made up his mind and took a cautious step back to the stairs. "Errr… I don't suppose now would be a good time?"

"An excellent suggestion, chick." Vincent prowled closer so he could practically nuzzle his lover.

"If you keep calling me that, you are just going to have more things to make up for." Hojo backed up another step.

Vincent tipped his head and followed, "Did you wark something, hatchling?"

"Oooh yes, a lot to make up for." Hojo turned and with Vincent a breath behind, ran up the stairs.

The End.

* * *

Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing my work. I have appreciated all of your comments and hope to hear from all of you in the future. I have treasured your words and your feedback more than I can ever express, so if this little thank you sounds a bit lame, it is because there are no words to do justice to my gratitude towards all of you.


End file.
